The CSIRO’s chief information officer of nearly nine and a half years, Brendan Dalton, will retire at the end of this year.
Mr Dalton, who was also chief information security officer until Jamie Rossato stepped into the role in September, spent the first three years of his career with the CSIRO from 1986 and returned to the national science organisation in 2015.
A CSIRO spokesperson said Mr Dalton is thanked “for providing strategic, organisational wide leadership to deliver secure, adaptive and innovative information and technology solutions”. He led around 350 staff at the Information Management Technology (IMT) unit.
During his tenure Mr Dalton oversaw delivery of a $16 million Dell supercomputer, the IMT strategy, and started work on a new digital strategy to coordinate digital transformation efforts across the CSIRO.
CSIRO also entered a partnership with NVIDIA in 2022 to build domestic AI capability and accelerate adoption.
Andrew Forrest and Nicola Forrest will be stepping down as co-chairs of the Minderoo Foundation, the philanthropic organisation they founded in 2001. Replacing them as incoming chair is respected barrister and former University of Melbourne Chancellor Allan Myers.
Australia’s trade and investment commissioner to the Netherlands, Nordics and Baltics Annika Barton has moved into the equivalent role for the United Kingdom and Ireland.
During her three-and-a-half-year stint she oversaw the establishment of Trade and Investment offices in Amsterdam and led three Team Australia delegations to the World Hydrogen Summit.
Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike has appointed Louis Tague as its new vice president of sales and managing director for Australia and New Zealand.
Mr Tague was previously vice president and managing director for Australia and New Zealand at cybersecurity firm Mandiant, a subsidiary of Google Cloud. He has also had similar roles at other cybersecurity companies FireEye, Veritas Technologies, and Symantec.
The Department of Health and Aged Care has created a chief digital information officer role, with its first assistant secretary for digital transformation and delivery Fay Flevaras to act in the role until a permanent appointment is made. Brian Schumacher is acting in Ms Flevaras’ former role.
The new chief digital information officer will be a SES Band 2 position that oversees the existing Information Technology Division and the Digital Transformation and Delivery Division.
Housing minister and former Home Affairs and Cybersecurity minister Clare O’Neil’s chief of staff Kate Pasterfield has moved to Sydney Airport to become general manager of government relations.
She was deputy chief of staff in August 2022 before becoming chief of staff in September 2023. Former Skills and Training minister Brendan O’Connor’s chief of staff Julie Ligeti has taken over from Ms Pasterfield.
LaunchVic is searching for a new chief operating officer to fill the vacancy left by Georgia McDonald. Ms McDonald left the role in July after more than three years.
At the National Disability Insurance Agency, Phil Bergensen has been appointed branch manager for ICT integrity transformation delivery. He has also held senior ICT roles at the Department of Health and Aged Care and Centrelink.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ new general manager for the data sourcing division is Jenny Telford, who was promoted from her role as program manager for the data sourcing design branch.
auDA — the not-for-profit organisation that manages .au domains – has appointed two new directors. They are Sydney Institute of Marine Science chief operating officer Brett Fenton and former JPMorgan Chase corporate technology Asia head Tina Wyer.
The Western Australian Education department’s new director general is Jay Peckitt, moving from the deputy director general role for education business services like finance, infrastructure and ICT.
The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation also has a new director general in Alistair Jones, confirming the role he has been acting in since January 2024. He was formerly acting director general of the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation in 2023.
Meanwhile the Training and Workforce Development department’s new director general is Jodie Wallace, building on her 20-year public service career.
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