NSW govt names new ICT advisory panel chair

The NSW government has appointed Anthony Wong, IT lawyer and former CIO, as the new chair of its private sector IT advisory panel, replacing outgoing leader John Baird.

Established in 2011, the ICT Advisory Panel is the formally-appointed brains trust of industry and academic sector technology experts invited to advise the state on industry trends and best practice.

Wong, who is also a fellow and former president of the Australian Computer Society, will represent the panel to the state's ICT Board, which is made up of the secretaries of each of the nine agency clusters in the NSW government charged with signing off all major IT policies and decisions.

Wong said in a statement he “looks forward to working with the NSW government and industry on matters of local and international significance in ICT".

“The NSW government has made substantive progress with one of the most comprehensive ICT strategies in Australia. Chief amongst this is its proactive engagement with the community and industry,” he said.

Outgoing chair John Baird held the post for two terms previously, and will remain on the panel. Baird is the head of global technology production for Deutsche Bank.

Wong will join five other new members appointed to the panel today, as the group completes its first annual refresh following an open expression of interest process late last year.

The five new faces include:

• Paul Cousins – geospatial chief at Google
• Lisa Harvey – founder of community-focused web development firm Energetica
• Professor Vijay Varadharajan – chair of innovation in computing at Macquarie University
• Marie Johnson – from the Centre for Digital Business (and formerly of the Department of Immigration)
• Les Davey - group executive director of business applications solutions at Fujitsu

Existing panel members Lee Barnett, Barbara Reed and Dr Steve Hodgkinson will all serve another term on the panel with Baird. Jane Treadwell, Ian Oppermann, Philip Cronin, Bob Hayward and Barry Dietrich will depart.