Former Services Australia chief executive Rebecca Skinner has been brought in to help deliver the Australian Taxation Office’s first capability review in a decade.
Ms Skinner, who stepped down from the Services Australia in September 2023, will undertake the review alongside Nigel Ray, a former Treasury deputy secretary.
Mr Ray was appointed Australia’s executive director to the World Bank under the former Coalition government, serving in the role until 2022. He has also spent time at the International Monetary Fund.
Both Ms Skinner and Mr Ray have been contracted to the ATO capability review team as an independent expert by the Australian Public Service Commission.
Ms Skinner, a 30-year veteran of the public service, was also contracted to review the Woomera Prohibited Area Rule for Defence under a separate $231,000 contract earlier this month.
The rest of the ATO capability review team is filled out by Australian Financial Security Authority chief executive Tim Beresford and Department of Education first assistant secretary Julie Birmingham.
The review will begin in October and finish in the first quarter of 2025.
The CSIRO’s Alex Cooke has announced on LinkedIn that he will leave the agency at the end of this year. He was recently appointed as adviser to the federal government’s strategic examination of the R&D system secretariat.
Mr Cooke has previously worked at the Education department, Australian Research Council and the Industry department, including an almost four-year stint in the European Union as a counsellor for industry, innovation and science.
The CSIRO’s deputy chief scientist Jill Freyne also left last month after more than 15 years at the science agency. She remains on the Griffith University industry advisory board and is deputy chair of the NSW Smart Sensing Network.
The CSIRO is undergoing its largest restructure in a decade, with close to 700 jobs on the chopping block. Most of the confirmed cuts will be worn by agency’s enterprise services arm.
The ASX’s new group executive for technology and data is Jamie Crank. Mr Crank is being promoted from his current role as general manager for trading and markets where he has been since November 2022.
Swinburne University has appointed its first chief data analytics officer, poaching La Trobe University’s chief data and analytics officer Anthony Perera. Mr Perera spent six years at La Trobe but has only been chief data and analytics officer since June 2023.
Prerana Mehta began as the Australian Council of Learned Academies chief executive this week. Ms Mehta moved from her role as head of CSIRO’s strategic partnerships group and was formerly AustCyber’s chief of ecosystem development and Austrade senior trade and investment commissioner in Singapore.
Defence SA’s new director for advanced systems Glen Gallagher will begin in the role on September 9. Mr Galagher is currently operations manager for Boeing in Adelaide and previously spent nearly 30 years in the Royal Australian Air Force.
Australia’s chief scientist Dr Cathy Foley will lead an expert panel that will ensure ongoing reporting of “methane and other greenhouse gases is accurate and transparent”, according to the federal government.
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