The committee overseeing Australia’s Economic Accelerator, a $1.6 billion research commercialisation initiative, has been confirmed after half a year of interim arrangements.
Two additional members were appointed to the AEA Advisory Board earlier this week as the six other interim appointees were confirmed as permanent on the board.
The new advisory board members are former head of Defence Space Command Catherine Roberts and former chief operating and commercial officer of Monash Food Innovation Dr Angeline Achariya.
The board is chaired by Jeff Connolly, who has been the Australian chief executive of defence industry multinational Thales since mid-2022. Former Queensland chief entrepreneur Julia Spicer is the deputy chair of the committee.
The other four board members are former Science and Technology Australia (STA) president Professor Mark Hutchinson, Australian National University research fellow for indigenous-led medicines Dr Virginia Marshall, resource sector innovation veteran Lauren Stafford, and MedTech venture capitalist Dr Paul Kelly.
STA chief executive Ryan Winn described the advisory board as “a stellar line up of industry and research leaders who will turbocharge connections and drive collaboration between business and universities”.
The chair of Airservices Australia John Weber has been appointed for a further 12 months, while Rob Sharp will begin as interim chief executive on July 29, also for 12 months. Mr Sharp was previously the secretary for Transport for NSW.
The Digital Transformation Agency’s digital service performance branch manager Lisa Jansen has moved to Services Australia as national manager of digital product design. At the end of 2022, she served as assistant secretary for the myGov user audit.
The Australian Manufacturing Hub has appointed Brendan Wilkinolls as AI solutions manager at the AI Adopt Centre it leads. Mr Wilkinolls was formerly head of machine learning engineering at IT consultancy Mantel Group and previously worked at DXC Technology.
Justin McGowan has been confirmed as the permanent chief executive of Trade and Investment Queensland for the next five years. He entered the role on a short-term contract in January 2023, concluding his 13-and-a-half-year career at the federal Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The New South Wales government-funded Semiconductor Sector Service Bureau has appointed Lim Wu Sim as manager for technical partnerships. He moves from his role as the University of Sydney’s external engagement manager.
The new head of the Communications Alliance is Luke Coleman, an industry veteran who has previously been chief of staff to former federal Communication minister Mitch Fifield as reported earlier this week.
Australia Post’s new chief information security officer is Adam Cartwright, as reported by iTnews. Mr Cartwright moves from his role as group general manager of cybersecurity and risk at Asahi Beverages.
RMIT University and Breakthrough Victoria have appointed a six-member investment committee to oversee a $15 million pre-seed fund. The committee is being chaired by RMIT deputy vice-chancellor for research and innovation Distinguished Professor Calum Drummond.
At the start of this month, Veronica Bainton started her time as chair of the NSW Space Research Network. Ms Bainton is also deputy chair of industry representative group, the Space Industry Association of Australia.
Data services company NetApp has appointed Mark Fioretto as vice president and managing director for Australia and New Zealand. Mr Fioretto previously served in similar roles at software developer UiPath and Dell.
Former Monash University deputy vice-chancellor for research Professor Rebekah Brown has moved to the Australian National University to become its provost and senior vice-president. Professor Brown was at Monash for nearly 20 years.
Industry association Ai Group has named the new co-chairs of its defence council: cybersecurity firm Penten chief executive Greg Barsby and Leidos Australia and Asia chief executive Paul Chase.
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