Former Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman has joined fintech and digital assets manager Trovio after serving as Australia’s High Commissioner to Singapore for the last two and a half years.
Mr Hodgman joins the Singapore-based company — which merged with Sydney-based digital asset manager and adviser TCM capital in 2021 — as a senior corporate adviser.
During Mr Hodgman’s time as High Commissioner, Australia signed a Green Economy Agreement and Digital Economy Agreement with Singapore. Its products include digital registers and blockchain platforms.
Trovio chief executive Jon Deane said the company is excited to welcome Mr Hodman given his “experience and insight on the global transition to net-zero”.
Mr Hodgman said “growing the green and digital economies in the transition to a net-zero future has been at the forefront of my work in government, and I am enormously energised at the prospect of now working with a team that firmly shares that vision”.
Program manager of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Synthetic startup accelerator SynBio10x, Dr Jason Whitfield, has been seconded to CSIRO-founded deep tech investment fund Main Sequence.
He will work as an adviser, splitting his time with his work at UNSW Founders. He will support Main Sequence partner Gabrielle Munzer who was promoted last September to increase the fund’s focus on scaling synthetic biology solutions.
Main Sequence senior associates Alezeia Brown and Jun Qu have also been appointed as investment managers.
The NSW Defence Innovation Network has appointed Sophie Calabretto as the new associate director. She replaces Marc West, who was in the role for three years.
Ms Calabretto had been seconded from the Defence Science and Technology Group where she was a science advisor on the NAVIGATE program, which seeks to provide a pathway for mid-career researchers and technologists into Defence.
Former Labor shadow minister for the environment and water Terri Butler has taken on more board positions. Ms Butler has been the interim chair of the bid to establish a Waste to Wealth Cooperative Research Centre since January and joined the Sustainable Aviation Fuels Alliance of Australia and New Zealand as chair in March.
Australian Public Service commissioner Peter Woolcott will retire on May 10 following four decade in the public service. This included tenures as Australian High Commissioner to New Zealand, Australia’s chief negotiator on the Paris Agreement on climate change, and Australian Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva.
Mr Woolcott became APS commissioner after serving as former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s chief of staff between 2017 and 2018.
Newly-minted New South Wales Premier Chris Minns has announced the departure of three secretaries at the departments of Treasury and Education, as well as at Transport for NSW.
Treasury secretary Paul Grimes, Education secretary Georgina Harrison, and Transport for NSW secretary Rob Sharp will vacate their roles. The new acting Transport for NSW secretary will be Howard Collins and the new Education secretary will be Murat Dizdar, commencing on April 15.
Mr Minns also announced the separation of the Department of Premier and Cabinet into ‘The Cabinet Office’ and a new separate ‘Premier’s Department’ as well as considering ending the cluster model, which would be implemented from July 1.
Over the next three months, Peter Duncan will serve as acting Secretary of the DPC to lead the transition and establishment of the new entities, replacing current secretary Michael Coutts-Trotter, who will become the acting secretary of Treasury.
Two new board appointments have been made to the NDIA board. These are Autism Association of Western Australia chief executive Joan McKenna Kerr and chair of the Darwin Waterfront Corporation and of the Australia Day Council Northern Territory Dr Richard Fejo.
Ms McKenna Kerr previously served on the NDIS Independent Advisory Council and as a member of the Commonwealth NDIS Advisory Group reporting to the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Select Council of Ministers and Treasurers. Dr Fejo is a Larrakia man who lives with a disability and also sits on the International Relations Committee for the City of Darwin. They fill the vacancy left by Glenn Keys and outgoing NDIA board member Professor Jane Burns.
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