IBM Australia and New Zealand’s new chief technology officer is Angelica Veness, who joins the tech giant after seven and a half years at Salesforce.
Ms Veness left her role as Salesforce’s senior manager for AI and innovation business consulting two week ago. She has previously worked as a solutions engineer at varying levels of seniority.
Her IBM appointment is somewhat of a homecoming, having previously worked at the company as a solutions architect between 2012 and 2017. She also spent her first year in an IT sales job in IBM’s United Kingdom office.
On LinkedIn, IBM Australia and New Zealand managing director Nicholas Flood said Ms Veness brings a “wealth of technical experience across artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies”.
Mr Flood said she will be a valuable advisor to clients and leader of IBM’s client engineering, account technology, and software and infrastructure technical specialist organisations.
Shortly after stepping down as chief executive of logistics software firm WiseTech Global, Richard White formally resigned from his directorship at the Tech Council of Australia, as reported by InnovationAus.com. Mr White will return to the company he founded as a full-time consultant at a later date and will continue to be paid $1 million a year.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has appointed David Allen as second commissioner of taxation for the frontline operations group on a seven-year term beginning on November 1. Mr Allen has been acting in the role since May, having previously acted as chief service delivery officer since May 2023.
Mr Allen first joined the ATO in 2010 as the Assistant Commissioner of Large Business Risk and was later the ATO’s delegate to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris.
The Department of Industry, Science and Resources’ commercialisation division head Dara Williams has moved to Austrade to become its deputy chief executive for policy and programs. Ms Williams also previously served as the deputy head of the Australian Space Agency (ASA).
Meanwhile, ASA head Enrico Palermo has been appointed as the International Astronautical Federation’s vice-president ahead of the organisation’s 76th International Astronautical Congress in Sydney next year. The congress will be hosted by the Space Industry Association of Australia with support of the ASA and the NSW government.
The Tasmanian state government has established a new Innovation, Science, and Digital Economy ministry as a part of a wider cabinet reshuffle. The new ministry replaces the existing Science and Technology portfolio and will helmed by minister Madeleine Ogilvie.
Ms Ogilvie took on the Science and Technology portfolio when it was re-established at the end of August. She initially served as Science and Technology minister from April 2022 until March 2024, when the role was disestablished following the Tasmanian election.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority’s (ACMA) deputy chair and chief executive Creina Chapman is not seeking reappointment and will finish in the role on December 10, rounding out more than six years in the role.
Ms Chapman is a regulatory affairs and corporate communications specialist who previously served as a senior adviser to former Liberal Treasurer Joe Hockey and former Prime Minister Tony Abbot during his term as leader of the Opposition.
Meanwhile, ACMA chair Nerida O’Loughlin has been reappointed as an associate member of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, extending her term to October 13, 2027.
Three new appointments have also been made to ACMA’s Consumer Consultative Forum. They are family violence services representative body Safe and Equal (VIC), First Nations Digital Inclusion Advisory Group co-chair Professor Lyndon Ormond-Parker, and the Country Women’s Association of NSW.
ANZ’s technology area lead for security operations, intelligence and influence, Gajan Ananthapavan, has moved to Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, where he will be chief information security officer, as reported by iTnews. He fills the vacancy left by Shannon Jurkovic who took up the equivalent position at the Australian Retirement Trust.
The Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences has appointed 31 new fellows. Among them is Amplia Therapeutics chief executive and managing director Dr Chris Burns, who was a co-recipient of the Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation earlier this month.
Professor Scott Bell has also been appointed a fellow, a few months before he finishes his term as the Queensland-based Translational Research Institute’s chief executive in February 2025.
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