Tony joined the APS in June 2004 as Director, Corporate Business Management in the Defence Chief Finance Officer Group. In July 2005 he joined the DMO as Director, Materiel Assurance and Audit Management. In 2006 he assumed the position of National Manager of Strategic Management at CRS Australia (Department of Human Services). Since returning to the DMO in early 2007, he has been promoted to Director General Business Improvement in November 2007, assumed the role of Director General Change and Assurance in January 2008 and the role of Director General Governance and Assurance on 1 July 2009. In February 2008 Tony was nominated to undertake the role of DMO Chief Audit Executive.

Gavin came to Australia in 1991 and before that he had a distinguished career in the UK and Europe in the public, private and community sectors specialising in social and economic policy development and delivery.

Gavin migrated to Australia to work as a Senior Policy Analyst in the then Deputy Prime Minister’s National Housing Strategy Taskforce. After that he held a number of senior policy and service delivery leadership roles in the New South Wales (NSW) State Public Service before re-joining the Australian Public Service in 2001 to lead the service delivery transformation of some 1600 staff across 27 offices as State Director for Centrelink in West Australia.

Gavin returned to Canberra in 2004 to lead Centrelink’s Welfare to Work transition and in 2005 he was seconded to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to work on the Government’s Welfare to Work Policy Taskforce that led to major announcements in the 2005 Federal Budget.

He joined DIAC in 2005, as part of the new Secretary’s business and cultural transformation strategy and in 2006 he was asked to the lead the delivery of this strategy as State Director on NSW – DIAC’s largest post consisting of some 1300 staff covering the full range of DIAC’s services.

In 2010 Gavin was asked to return to Canberra to build a new policy, program management and service delivery support Division to lead an intelligence and risk lead approach to risk, fraud and integrity covering all of DIAC’s policies, programs and services and in this year he was also appointed as DIAC’s Chief Risk Officer.

Gavin is a member of a number of DIAC and external Corporate Governance Committees; an Executive Fellow of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (2006); an alumnus of the Commonwealth Study Conference (2003); and was a Board Member of the NSW Division of the Australia Day Council. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Glasgow University, a postgraduate teaching certificate and was awarded first place in a postgraduate diploma in urban studies. He has been in the SES for over 15 years and at the FAS level for almost half that time.

Michael Hirschfeld is Assistant Secretary, Commercial and Stakeholder Liaison in the Moorebank Project Office. His current role is exploring the feasibility of a proposed major Government investment in an intermodal rail facility in Western Sydney.

Over the past seven years Michael has undertaken a number of broad roles at a senior level for the Department of Finance and Deregulation including managing a team delivering whole of Government ICT savings following the Gershon Review and managing the delivery of a broad range of corporate services. Prior to joining Finance in 2005 he was start up CIO for the Department of HumanServices and spent a number of years in the Australian Tax Office and the Australian Bureau of Statistics delivering better ICT outcomes.

Michael has degrees in Engineering and Business Management and in 2011 attended the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and has significant experience in the governance of major Australian Government projects and managing risk to ensure the successful delivery of outcomes.

Dr James Popple is the Australian Freedom of Information Commissioner. He is responsible for undertaking merits review of FOI decisions made by Commonwealth ministers, departments and agencies; monitoring, investigating and reporting on compliance with the Freedom of Information Act 1982; assisting departments and agencies to publish information in accordance with the information publication scheme under the Act; and promoting awareness and understanding of the Act and its objects.

Before being appointed FOI Commissioner in November 2010, James worked for 12 years in various areas of the Australian Attorney-General’s Department, six years as First Assistant Secretary. Before that he was a judge’s associate, then Deputy Registrar of the High Court of Australia. James has degrees in law and arts, and is admitted as a barrister and a solicitor. He is also an Adjunct Lecturer in the College of Engineering and Computer Science at the Australian National University, where he conducted his doctoral research in artificial intelligence and law.

Donna has an extensive background in human resources both in the private and public sectors. Her present focus is establishing and developing strategies, systems and processes for leadership development, talent management and succession planning at Queensland Health, having recently developed strategies for the Commonwealth and Victorian public services. These strategies focus on identifying, developing and assessing high potential leaders. She has worked as an HR Director and in organisational development, strategic advisory, change management, industrial relations and HR policy roles. Her interests include leadership development theory and practice, high performance workplaces, aligning development and business requirements, succession risk management, organisational transformation and nice shoes.

John Toms is Consulting Director, Governance Risk & Compliance within Oakton’s Accounting & Assurance business line.

With significant managerial and consulting experience in private and government organisations including as a long-term CEO of a financial institution, John delivers pragmatic assessments and achievable recommendations for improvement regarding strategic, financial and operational risk within an Enterprise Risk Management framework for Government organisations and business.

John works with all key organisational stakeholders to develop a shared understanding of objectives and recommended solutions to obtain an agreed implementation approach. He has a particular interest in driving efficiency and value in program delivery and risk management solutions targeted at delivering accountability and transparency in government processes.

He is currently preparing a White Paper on Risk Management in the Public Sector with the support of a number of government agencies for the Institute of Public Administration Australia and will be presenting the findings from his work at the Conference.

George Masri is a Senior Assistant Ombudsman in the office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman. George has worked at the Ombudsman’s office since the beginning of 2005 and is presently responsible for the Immigration Ombudsman and the Overseas Student functions within the office. George’s previous areas of responsibility within the office included the Social Support, Child Support, Indigenous areas. George has a broad background in public administration, including as an associate to a member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, a principal solicitor in a number of community legal centres, a ministerial adviser in the Immigration, Veterans’ Affairs and Environment portfolios and as a senior business consultant for a company developing automated systems to assist with administrative decision making. George is also a council member of the ACT Division of the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA).