A veteran of the German technology group Siemens Peter Halliday has been appointed as the new chair and chief executive officer of Siemens Australia from September 1. Mr Halliday moves from his role as senior vice-president at Siemens Smart Infrastructure, and comes after more than 24 years at the company. He has held senior roles in Australia, Asia, and Europe.
Before joining Siemens he spent 16 years at the New South Wales State Rail Authority. Mr Halliday succeeds current Siemens Australia chair and chief executive Jeff Connolly who will become Thales Australia and New Zealand chief executive on August 31. Mr Connolly spent 37 years at Siemens.
Member of the managing board for Siemens AG Matthias Rebellius said Mr Halliday’s extensive experience would be “pivotal to shaping future growth and the digital transformation of our customers in Australia and New Zealand”. He also thanked Mr Connolly for his “incredible contribution to shaping the brand and reputation of Siemens in the region”.
Quantum tech firm Q-CTRL has appointed Alex Shih as its head of product. Mr Shih moves from his role as principal of technical products at Slack after more than two years with the company. Prior to that, he spent a year at Airbnb, three years at Planet Labs, more than two and a half years at Twitter, two years at Google, and five years at Raytheon.
Q-CTRL founder and chief executive Professor Michael Biercuk said he was excited to welcome Mr Shih to the team.
“Alex’s consumer and enterprise expertise will help us deliver Q-CTRL’s powerful capabilities in quantum computing and quantum sensing to the broadest range of end users, regardless of their experience levels,” Professor Biercuk said.
The Bank of Queensland’s new chief information officer for core technology and group services is Tracy Wilson. Ms Wilson moves from the chief information officer role at the NSW Treasury, where she spent more than three-and-a-half years. Before entering the public sector, Ms Wilson had two-and-a-half year chief information officer stints at law firms Henry Davis York and at DibbsBarker. She was also previously at Minter Ellison for almost six years.
The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has appointed Elissa Walker as its chief digital officer and deputy commissioner for digital delivery after acting in the role for almost a year and a half. Before entering this role, Ms Walker was assistant commissioner for digital delivery between January 2020 and April 2021.
She also spent just under two years as program director at the Queensland Department of Housing and Public Works. Prior to moving to the public sector Ms Walker spent more than 18 years at multinational IT consulting firm Accenture across their offices in Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.
Fleet Space Technologies’ new director of planetary geophysics is Dr Gerrit Olivier. He has been a senior adjunct researcher at the University of Tasmania since March 2019 and an associate researcher at Université Grenoble Alpes in France since November 2018. He also spent more than 11 years at the Institute of Mine Seismology in Hobart, where he was director and head of applied geophysics between July 2018 and April 2022.
NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler has reversed his decision to resign and will remain in the role until August 2023. He originally announced last month he would resign at the end of Noveber after being in the role since August 2019.
In his resignation letter he highlighted concerns regarding Coronation Property Group’s relationship with New South Wales’ then-Minister for Fair Trading Eleni Petinos. The company had also employed former New South Wales Deputy Premier John Barilaro.
The new head of policy at the Department of Industry, Science, and Resources is Sally Railton. She first joined the department in February 2013.
Three assistant commissioners have been appointed at the ATO, Christopher Rock, Hoshedar Elavia, and Megan Croaker. They will oversee developer and income tax and platform support, application shared services, and the justified trust initiative. All three were acting assistant commissioners prior to appointment.
Another ATO deputy commissioner appointment went to Narda Phillips who will oversee work at the modernising business registries program. She moves from her role as deputy commissioner for enterprise tax and super systems where she was since April 2021.
The new launch technology service manager at Equatorial Launch is Dr Alexander Wright. He moves from TurbAero where he was a senior engineer for aerothermal design for three years.
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