DTA reveals new chief

Former banker Gavin Slater has been hired as the first permanent CEO of the government's Digital Transformation Agency.

L to R: Nerida O'Loughlin, Gavin Slater, and Angus Taylor.

Since the DTA was rebranded and dramatically expanded last October, it has been led in an interim capacity by former ACMA executive Nerida O’Loughlin.

O’Loughlin will now hand the reins to Slater, who brings seven years of experience as an executive at NAB to the government’s digital transformation agenda.

Slater was one of several executives made redundant from the bank in an leadership shake up in July last year.

The former corporal in the South African defence force has also worked stints at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in South Africa and Australia.

“Gavin brings a wealth of experience from his roles as chief financial officer, chief operating officer for the bank’s major business areas, as well as group executive of personal banking," assistant minister for digital transformation Angus Taylor said in a statement.

“He well understands the challenges faced by government agencies as they seek to transform their own services to better meet the needs of users."

Slater said “making services simpler, faster and easier" had been core to his focus "over many years".

“In support of the Prime Minister’s vision, I look forward to bringing my skills, experience and passion to the public sector as it looks to improve services to benefit all Australians," he said in a statement. 

He will begin his new role on May 1.

O'Loughlin told the AIIA's digital government summit today that Slater would bring "enterprise scale and understanding to the DTA, and also an outstanding personal commitment to professional development and culture".

She claimed the banks consistently rate at 80 percent or above in terms of customer satisfaction in Australia, creating a high standard for government to chase.

In response, Canberra has been borrowing heavily from the financial sector’s IT brain trust.

Slater’s former NAB colleague John Murphy was hired by the Department of Human Services in February last year to lead its $1.5 billion Centrelink payments system replacement.

Another NAB alumnus, Paul Cazaz, was poached by the Department of Defence early this year to become second in charge to CIO Peter Lawrence.

Lawrence himself, as well as DHS CIO Gary Sterrenberg, both worked for ANZ Bank prior to joining the public sector.