President

Nick Tate has over 45 years’ experience in ICT, including 20 years in Cybersecurity, 16 years as a CIO/Head of IT at two London banks and the University of Queensland (UQ) and 11 years as head of the Australian Computer Emergency Response Team (AusCERT), which dealt with cybersecurity incidents nationally. He is co-author of “A Director’s Guide to Governing Information Technology and Cybersecurity”, an AICD published book and has 20 years’ experience as a Company Director in 16 Australian and 2 US companies. He is an Adjunct Professor at UQ, has degrees in Physics and Computer Science and a PhD in Cybersecurity. He is both a Fellow and Honorary Life Member of the ACS. Nick is currently Vice President (Membership), President of the South East Asia Regional Computer Confederation (SEARCC) and leads an APEC project on ICT Skills Frameworks. He is also Chair of the Council of ICT Associations (CICTA) and chaired the World Computer Congress in 2010. He was the National President of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) in 2012/2013 and is a member of the SFIA Council. Hi work experience includes working on the development of antimissile systems and real-time air traffic control systems before spending 20 years working for investment banks in both London and Australia.

Vice President - Academic Boards

Technology advocate dedicated to advances and the progression of Human Computer Interaction (HCI), and cyber security, combined with research and academic engagement in six main areas, Business, Information Technology, International Relations, Security, South-east Asia, and Governance. Fluent in South-east Asian languages.

Vice President - Community Boards

Jo has over 25 years’ experience in the IT field some of which were spent as CIO in the Utilities and as Group CIO in the Tourism space, and with significant experience in the Information Security arena including as CISO in the healthcare sector. She underpins her information technology and security background with her qualifications in education and management. She specialises in consulting in risk and technology issues with a particular emphasis on governance and security in both the commercial and operational areas of businesses. Jo provides strategic advice to organisations across a number of industry sectors including banking and finance, utilities, manufacturing, tertiary education, retail, healthcare and government. Jo has extensive board and committee experience. She has chaired a number of ISACA’s international committees including the Board Audit & Risk Committee, Leadership Development and Professional Influence & Advocacy. She served as an Elected Director on ISACA’s international Board of Directors for seven years and was the founder of its global women’s leadership initiative, SheLeadsTech.

Vice President - Membership Boards

Jo has proudly served the ACS in a number of elected roles at State and National levels since 2008. In national roles, Jo has overseen ACS policy development and submissions, and is currently a member of the Working Group overseeing ACS’s Constitutional Reform. For over 20 years, Jo has specialised in the governance, change processes and delivery of digital projects, with a focus on improving customer trust in systems and data. Jo’s early career was in advertising and publishing, managing transformation to digital technologies. Her recent work focus is on large compute service provision and sensitive data collaboration and linkage platforms in ISO 27001 environments.

National Treasurer

Arnold Wong has enjoyed a long and successful professional career in the ever evolving ICT services industry for over 30 years. He has developed extensive strategic leadership, general management, customer service, and business development skills in diverse industries, including technology, education, healthcare, and resources in public and private sectors across Australia, Asia, Europe and Americas. A Fellow of ACS, he serves as National Treasurer on the ACS Management Committee and is a member of the Branch Executive Committee in Western Australia. Arnold is currently the Asia Pacific Director for Strategy and Transformation at Infor Global Solutions and have previously served in leadership roles in the Western Australian Government including as a member of the WA Government CIO Council and chaired the Conference Logistic Committee for the World Wide Web (WWW) 2017 Conference.

Immediate Past President

Ian currently holds the role of NSW Chief Data Scientist and is an Industry professor at UTS. Ian has 30 years’ experience in the ICT sector and, has led organizations with more than 300 people, delivering products and outcomes that have impacted hundreds of millions of people globally. He has held senior management roles in Europe and Australia as Director for Radio Access Performance at Nokia, Global Head of Sales Partnering (network software) at Nokia Siemens Networks, and then Divisional Chief and Flagship Director at CSIRO. Ian is considered a thought leader in the area of the Digital Economy and is a regular speaker on “Big Data”, broadband enabled services and the impact of technology on society. He has contributed to 6 books and co-authored more than 130 papers which have been cited more than 4000 times. Ian has an MBA from the University of London and a Doctor of Philosophy in Mobile Telecommunications from Sydney University.

Director - Member Advisory Board

Cindy has been part of the NSW BEC for many years before being elected to the National role. Experienced in service management and service delivery with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry. Skilled in Business Process Design, IT Strategy, Management, and Business Intelligence. Strong consulting professional graduated from MGSM, UNSW and AICD.

Director - Profession Advisory Board

Michael Johnson has been Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Macquarie University since 2002. He is also a Director of the Macquarie-DEC ICT Innovations Centre and a Director and Deputy Treasurer of Dunmore Lang College. Formerly he was the Head of the Department of Computing (1997-2000) and he served as Vice-President and Chair of the University's Academic Senate (2006-2008). In 1997 he was runner up for the inaugural Australian Award for University Teaching in all Science disciplines and he has held continuous ARC large/discovery grant funding for over 20 years.

Director - Technical Advisory Board

Mathias Gaertner holds the public office of a permanently sworn in and publicly accredited expert witness in Germany for 20 years. He also was a lecturer for Information Science for 16 years and is working as an independent consultant for Information Security (MACS Snr CP (cyber Security), IP3P) and Data Privacy in Europe and Australia. He is a consultant to the German federal minister of Economy and Commerce as well as member of the German/European Cyber Security Alliance. Prior to that he was chief IT infrastructure planner for the Fraunhofer Society for 5 years.

New South Wales Congressional Representative

Bringing emerging technology to organisations at scale. Executive leader with deep skills delivering some of the largest programmes and innovations, focus is on how to help organisations leverage the most out of a changing world. Not just the words and ideas, but the actual transformation in a meaningful and impactful way. Background in development, architecture, strategy and delivery.

New South Wales Congressional Representative

Helen is the NSW Branch Chair and currently act as an Ambassador to ICT industry championing causes, cohorts, groups as they address the challenges and initiative of our Profession, primarily focused on Women in ICT, Hack-a-thons, Start-ups and Agile and Disruptive Service delivery, Not-For-Profits. My career has contributed to the success of policy strategies in Federal Government Service Delivery Objectives in senior roles advising corporate leaders. I am the current ACS NSW Chair 2021-2022. I have held a number of other positions in ACS as a volunteer including NSW Vice Chair for 3 years and Chair and member of ACS Women NSW for 5 years. Groups I support are: TechGirls, RareBirds, NSydInnovation, Scrum Alliance to name a few.

Canberra Congressional Representative

An IT professional with several years of experience, Kevin's focus is on Business Analysis, System Design, Change and Quality Management as well as Project and Program Management with a very strong emphasis on Stakeholder Management, Analysis and Government. He is currently a Senior Manager in ACT Health managing their Critical Systems and Infrastructure Hub. Prior to that, he was a Senior Consultant with Infosys and primarily worked on the DHS Account. Before Infosys, Kevin was part of KPMG Australia's Technology Advisory practice with a primary focus on the Defence and Intelligence sector. Prior to KPMG, he worked at the Department of Human Services (Centrelink) as a Business Analyst and Change Manager concentrating on web-based projects, portals and middleware technology. Kevin is a keen volunteer in the Canberra Branch of the ACS, and has been involved with the society for over 10 years in various roles such as Young IT Representative, Honorary Branch Secretary, Conference Project Manager (2011 and 2012), Conference Chair (2012), Branch Treasurer and now - Vice Chair.

Canberra Congressional Representative

Roger's career has mostly been in private sector professional, managerial and consultancy roles, interrupted by a decade as a senior academic. His consultancy focus is on disruptive information technologies' strategic and policy impacts and implications, and security and privacy aspects of IT. His Board experience is deep and diverse, and he's held a wide variety of positions within ACS. He also has a long record of public interest advocacy in the privacy and consumer rights areas. He has degrees from UNSW and ANU, has long been a Fellow of the ACS, and is a Visiting Professor in Computer Science at ANU and in Law at UNSW.

Northern Territory Congressional Representative

Damien Charles is the Regional Manager for NEC Australia in the Northern Territory, with over 25 years of experience delivering ICT services. Having started in the Industry on the NTG’s Service Desk in the mid 90’s, Damien has progressed his career through all levels and multiple roles, and is now responsible for delivering service to NTG across a number of managed services contracts. NEC is the largest non-government ICT employer in the Northern Territory and under Damien’s local leadership has been named as the NT’s Employer of the Year for 2018 and 2019. As a long term Territorian with a keen interest in helping others to achieve success in the ICT industry, and also to develop the industry in the North of Australia, he has invested considerable time and effort in supporting the local university and students and is an active member of a number of the local associations and ICT Committee’s. He is a passionate advocate for the ACS and its role in providing guidance and support.

Northern Territory Congressional Representative

Martin is experienced in Operational and Service Delivery across multiple industries and technologies. A combination of managerial and technical knowledge enables me to deliver on business outcomes through working with customers and senior management, understanding their requirements and issues, and optimising the benefits of the IT services provided. Specialties: Service Delivery, Customer relationship management, team management and leadership.

Queensland Congressional Representative

Mike Driver is the Director, Frontline Communication & Response for the Frontline & Digital Division, Queensland Police Service (QPS), providing ICT services to the front-line operations of Queensland Police, Queensland Fire and Emergency Services (QFES) and Queensland Ambulance Services (QAS). Mike is a fellow of the ACS, the Vice Chair of the Business Assurance Committee and was the Vice President (Memberships) in 2016-2017. Mike has been a member of Congress for the past 10 years. Mike has also been a member of the Queensland Branch of ACS for over 10 years in roles of Chair, Vice Chair, Honorary Secretary, and general committee member. Mike is currently the ACS QLD Immediate Past Chair.

Queensland Congressional Representative

Beau has over 20 years’ experience in senior leadership, advisory, and consultancy roles in the technology sector in Australia and the APAC region. Having spent many years living and working in the Pacific, Beau has seen how technology and innovation can change lives. Along with his roles on several ACS boards and committees, Beau is also the Treasurer for the Australian Smart Cities Association (ASCA) and a founding independent review member for the Internet Society Foundation. Beau is also on several University advisory boards. He is passionate about how technology can change lives and mentoring the next generation of tech leaders

South Australia Congressional Representative

An outcome-focused, result-oriented leader who is passionate about helping people and organisations realise their potential through technology driven opportunities. Over past two decades I have worked across and transformed organisations within the automotive industry, construction, education, legal, finance and wine world by aligning technology with businesses strategy and delivering value based outcomes.

South Australia Congressional Representative

Chris has over 40 years Information Management and Technology experience working collaboratively and innovatively across the Private, Public and Non-for-profit (Welfare) sectors. Current role since 2009 as the Associate Director of SA NT DataLink, a nationally leading collaborative partnership across the University Research and Government sectors, operating an authorised facility for South Australia and the Northern Territory to safely share de-identified data for approved use and unit record level analysis. Chris specialises in collaborative partnerships to unlock the public's value from data, supporting innovative research, planning, monitoring, evaluation and analysis, enabling greater value and accountability from organisations and government resources. Chris has professional qualifications in information security, and deep experience in data governance and privacy protection protocols.

Tasmania Congressional Representative

Ray has significant experience in senior management—from industrial, multinational companies to the genesis of the technology driven economy in Tasmania. Prior to joining the ACS, he managed Netspace Online Systems Tasmanian services for 10 years, where he was involved in change management and the construction of the DSL and fibre networks for Tasmania. Ray has significant involvement in start-ups as a founding associate of Tasmania’s largest Telecommunications and Data Hosting Company. Rays knowledge gives him a unique perspective into technology driven economies; he is a trained facilitator with expertise in brokering relationships across all sectors of the economy. Ray is currently Vice Chair of the Tasmanian Branch Executive and Tasmanian Chair of the Pearcey Foundation. As ACS member and CP Ray recognises the challenges and opportunities to unlocking the economic and social benefits of the technological transformation, he is actively involved with government, business, education, research and development, and the wider community.

Tasmania Congressional Representative

Jonathan has worked in highly performing teams for over twenty years in tourism, government, education and the property industry. Currently Jonathan is contributing to mobile, web and integration projects as Principal Consultant for Infoasis.

Victoria Congressional Representative

In the industry Maria is a connector, known for bringing people, ideas and technology solutions together across the ICT sector. She has domain expertise across disruptive technology trends, as well as software implementations in various industries. Career highlights include working on large projects undertaken by ASX 300 corporations. Maria is a passionate advocate for increased representation of women in IT, as well as broadening the general diversity of professionals working in technology.

Western Australia Congressional Representative

Michelle has 20 years experience working in Tech for global companies that include IBM and Microsoft. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and is now the Chairman of the ACS in WA. Michelle sits on various advisory boards and speaks at international conferences. She is an advocate for the games industry, for diversity, accessibility and inclusion and is regularly invited to speak to the next generation in tech at University STEM Events and Careers days.

Western Australia Congressional Representative

Courageous, outcome-driven, insightful and innovative Digital / Information Executive with a proven and recognized ability to deliver on digital transformation outcomes. Broad and deep experience across resources, engineering, technology and higher education provides a foundation for great cross-discipline knowledge, value and capability. Delivering cultural and organisational change as part of any transformation is critical to its success. Utilising skills associated with listening, understanding, empathy, team and customer obsession, have enabled me to be successful within my previous organisations. Leading from the back, coaching and mentoring, while being the “leader you wished you’d had” are all key motivating factors for me. Success in the people I interact with are my true measure of value.

Chief Executive Officer

Following an 11-year stint at Engineers Australia as the Executive General Manager of Professional Standards and Practice, Grayston held roles at the Office of Professional Standards Council and the Australian Property Institute. Grayston holds a degree in Civil Engineering and a Masters in Engineering Management.