CSIRO ends nine-month search for new CIO

Australia's peak science and research organisation CSIRO has ended its nine-month search for a new chief information officer by hiring a long-time IT public sector executive who started his career at the agency over 25 years ago.

Brendan Dalton

Former Immigration department assistant secretary Brendan Dalton was appointed the CSIRO's new CIO this month.

Prior to his almost two-year stint at Immigration, Dalton spent several years as CIO at both the Clean Energy Regulator and former Department of Climate Change. He started his career in IT in the public sector in 1986 as a graduate at CSIRO, where he worked for four years.

The agency had been hunting for a new CIO since last October, when its former IT chief David Toll departed after a seven-year stint in the role. Deputy CIO Euan Sangster had been acting in the position since then.

A CSIRO spokesperson attributed the delay in hiring to efforts to "ensure we appointed the best and most suitable candidate for the role".

Dalton will manage 250 staff in the agency's information management and technology (IM&T) division  - which is split up into IT services, scientific computing, information services and e-research - across 30 sites.

The department provides IT support across the entire CSIRO, including its specialist research computing facilities as well as office infrastructure support, data storage and online library information services.

One of Dalton's first tasks will be to develop a new IT strategy for the CSIRO to take into account "wider government issues on standardisation, and the role of the cloud in providing the platform capability", the organisation has previously said.

He will report to head of CSIRO's national facilities and collections business David Williams.

“I am excited to be taking on the role and want to build on the momentum that the CSIRO IM&T team has established over many years in supporting both corporate and research computing needs,” Dalton said in a statement.

“The IM&T team has the ability to build some truly great national computing infrastructure and to support CSIRO’s reform journey through targeted information management solutions."