South Australia has reappointed Chief Scientist Professor Caroline McMillen to the role for another three years. Professor McMillen has been in the role since October 2018 following her time as the University of Newcastle’s vice-chancellor for seven years.
Taking to Twitter, Professor McMillen said it was a privilege to be asked to return.
“I look forward to working closely with our great STEMM educators, remarkable researchers and committed industry and government leaders to ensure SA takes its place on the global stage as a key State of Science and Innovation,” Professor McMillen said.
The SA chief scientist was also part of the development of SA’s 10-year Excellence, Collaboration, Innovation, Translation and Enabled future workforce (EXCITE) strategy. The state aims to be in the top quartile among OECD countries along performance measures of the innovation value chain.
Fortsecue Future Industries (FFI), the green energy subsidiary of the mining group has appointed Felicity Gooding as commercial general manager. Ms Gooding will start the role on March 1 and departing her role as deputy chief executive from the Minderoo Foundation, a philanthropic organisation co-founded by Andrew and Nicola Forrest.
This follows the news on Tuesday that FFI manager of global resources Nadia Butler had left the company, and last Sunday that FFI head of commercial Bethwyn Cowcher had resigned.
The University of New South Wales has found their inaugural Cisco chair in digital transport in Professor Flora Salim. As part of the School of Computer Science, Professor Salim will focus her research on the digitisation of the transport sector in collaboration with global IT firm Cisco. This follows her recent membership of the Australian Research Council College of Experts.
Professor Salim will leave her role as the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University’s co-Deputy Director of the Centre for Information Discovery and Data Analytics. She said that now is an important time to conduct research in transport and mobility, especially in partnership with Cisco.
“Not only is there more data available to fuel the research in mobility data science, but also the further multi-prong impact from this research area into multiple other areas such as pandemic management, supply chain, digitisation in infrastructures and energy systems, the future of work, the future of retail, future energy systems, spatial intelligence and defence, and sustainability,” Professor Salim said.
To lead a statutory review on the operation of the Consumer Data Right (CDR) the federal government has appointed senior public servant Elizabeth Kelly. The CDR intends to give people greater control of the data collected by businesses.
Ms Kelly has worked in the public sector since 1996 and most recently left the role of the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science deputy secretary. In this role Ms Kelly oversaw development of technology, innovation, and digital policy, namely contributing to the Commonwealth Digital Economy Strategy.
The New South Wales Smart Sensing Network (NSSN) is calling for expressions of interest to fill two vacant board roles and the chair to serve two year terms. The network helps translate research in smart sensing into valuable solutions for the economy, environment, and society.
Although headquartered at the University of Sydney, the network is a consortium of eight NSW and Australian Capital Territory-based universities.
Following the merger with BHP’s petroleum business, Woodside has nominated its executive team. In particular, Australian Operation will be headed by Fiona Hick who has been Woodside executive vice-president of operations since 2019.
Carbon neutral telco provider, and budget arm of Telstra, Belong has promoted Lambros Kallianiotis to the role of chief technology officer after three years as head engineer. Mr Kallianiotis brings with him over 15 years of technology leadership at ANZ Bank, Australia Post, and Belong.
Government cybersecurity provider Macquarie Government has appointed Mike Foster as their new Director of Strategic Growth. Former Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand chief executive officer Mike Foster will bring to the new role 12 years of senior leadership experience at TelstraClear, Telstra, and computer company EMC, which is now a part of Dell.
The new Productivity Commission assistant commissioner is Lou Will, a promotion that comes after 22 years in the public service.
The Department of Defence has promoted Alexandra Kelton to First Assistant Secretary Policy and Agreements. Promotions at the Department of Finance ICT Division have been made to fill the Assistant Secretary roles. These have gone to Cathryn Martin, Patrick Roberts and Marcel Gabriel.
Promotions to assistant secretary were made at the Department of Education, Skills and Employment for Jennifer Hewitt and Kate Chipperfield.
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