Weetangera, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
- Currently engaged with Defence in uniformed capacity. Most recently supported Defence Transformation initiatives following two years as Director Defence Senior Committees. - In 2018 I completed the Defence and Strategic Studies Course where I was awarded the Commander Australian Defence College Award (Geddes Gavel), awarded to the student who "contributes and demonstrates the greatest understanding of political, diplomatic, military, cultural and economic factors that influence regional relationships and decision-making". - Tertiary qualifications underpinned by ongoing professional certification by the Australian Institute of Project Management as a Certified Practicing Project Director since 2009. - Key experience in intelligence, international policy, managing international materiel relationships, project and program management (including with international partners) and providing contestability and strategic decision support to senior executives and Government. - Operational deployments to Iraq in support of UN weapons inspections, Bougainville Peace Monitoring Group, Sydney Paralympics and Iraq as Policy Adviser to Commander JTF 633. - Passion for developing others, particularly through Adventurous Training where I am qualified instructor in white water kayaking and white water rafting to develop leadership and resilience in environments of risk and fear.
Currently working in CIOG. previously an Instructor at the Royal Military College Duntroon where I provide instruction, guidance and mentoring for Officer Cadets as they progress through the five modules of the Army Reserve Officer Commissioning Course. I was posted to the Adventurous Training Wing where I used my qualifications as an Instructor of White Water Kayaking and White Water Rafting (and Unit Adventurous Training Leader for Sea Kayaking) to provide instruction on a range of technical and Military Facilitation courses designed to develop qualities such as leadership and resilience in the context of risk and fear, thereby creating 'pre-combat veterans'. In this role I also delivered highly successful courses as Chief Instructor and Course Manager and delivered high-profile international adventurous training activities such as Exercise Pandaroo (Australia and China) and Exercise Kowari (Australia, US and China). I rewrote existing and developed new doctrine applicable to Army Adventurous Training.
As a registrant on the RedR humanitarian roster, I am pre-vetted to deploy with one of the UN Standby Partnership (UNSBP) agencies, as well as a number of government, regional and civil society organisations, to help communities prepare, respond and recover from crises and conflict.
In response to the initiatives of the Defence Transformation Strategy, I have developed a series of discussion papers on the proposal for Defence to consider the merits of a Chief Learning Officer including practical preparatory steps for more detailed organisational analysis to occur.
Working in support of Defence's most senior decision-makers, I established a good understanding of governance and organisational complexity in a very large Government Department as well as the political and strategic considerations of major policy decisions. As Secretary of the Defence Committee, Investment Committee, Enterprise Business Committee, Chiefs of Service Committee and Strategic Policy Committee I sought to ensure alignment to the strong strategic centre and to enable continuing reform in Defence by delivering an efficient and disciplined approach to considering proposals. I implemented high level reporting to Committee Chairs to draw together common threads across committees, thereby ensuring consistency and reducing time spent in rework. I led a team of 13 people to fully implement Defence Enterprise Committee Governance Framework (ECGF) and its 11 enterprise committees within directed timeframes and to continuously improve high-level administrative and policy support. This included development of well-structured committee charters and the suite of supporting documentation (such as schedules, forward work plans, templates, registries etc), successfully implementing virtual committee meetings in the context of COVID-19 restrictions, resource optimisation through complementary work teams and streamlined controls around entry criteria for items to be considered by committees. I also chaired a Defence Committees community of practice to build productive relationships and develop best practice across the Department.
I am a Fellow of the Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies where I was awarded the Commander Australian Defence College Award (Geddes Gavel), which is awarded to the student who contributes and demonstrates the greatest understanding of political, diplomatic, military, cultural and economic factors that influence regional relationships and decision-making. I was also selected to present the results of my academic analysis on the relative soft power of Australia and China (which attracted a high distinction) to the Japanese National Institute of Defense Studies.
I was accountable for ensuring that cost and capability aspects of large, complex maritime capability proposals (up to 40 projects at any time) were comprehensive, accurate, evidence-based and clearly articulated key risks to fully inform Government decision-making and benefits realisation in accordance with the Defence White Paper. Through high level decision support to senior decision makers and Government, I ensured transparency and efficiency to match effectiveness of capability delivered. I prepared Cabinet Submissions covering tens of billions of dollars worth of new capabilities and steered these submissions through interdepartmental review prior to consideration by Government. As acting Branch Head on multiple occasions I progressed projects across all capability domains, ensuring detailed, cogent and meaningful analysis.