Introducing our panellists
Intermedium would like to introduce our senior thought leaders at this year's Federal Budget Breakfast Briefing.
Chris Fechner
CEO, Digital Transformation Agency
Chris Fechner was appointed the Chief Executive Officer at the Digital Transformation Agency on 13 October 2021.
Chris has extensive experience in state government services, focusing on large scale digital and ICT reform and transformation programs as well as implementing contemporary investment, contestability, and governance frameworks.
Before joining the Australian Public Service, Chris was the Queensland Government Chief Customer and Digital Officer throughout 2020 and 2021. Chris was previously the Chief Digital and Product Officer at Service NSW. Prior to that, Chris held a number of senior positions across the NSW and Queensland governments as well as in freight and rail organisations.
Chris holds an Executive Masters of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Applied Science and Computing, both from the Queensland University of Technology.
As CEO, Chris is responsible for leading the DTA to ensure it delivers on the Government’s digital transformation agenda, in accordance with the agency’s executive order and the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013.
Judy Hurditch
Principal Analyst, Intermedium
Judy was a Deputy Commissioner of Taxation when she left the Australian Public Service and was responsible for a range of major ICT-dependent program reforms, including the implementation of the Tax File Number System.
She has an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management and founded Intermedium in 2004, as a specialist researcher of Australian public sector use of digital and ICT.
As an independent industry analyst, she has an extensive understanding of key technology and digitisation issues facing senior government decision-makers.
Paul Hubbard
a/g Deputy Head, Simplified Trade System Implementation (STS) Taskforce
Paul has experience across the Department of Finance, the Department of the Treasury, the Office of National Assessments and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, on key areas of regulatory reform, domestic policy (Henry Tax Review) and international economic policy.
He was a 2006 Fulbright Postgraduate Scholar, and a 2014 Sir Roland Wilson Scholar PhD, with a doctoral thesis on the “Nature and Performance of China’s State-owned Enterprises.”
Every week on GovTeams he hosts The Masked Economist, an interactive online series to spread the joy of economics by unpacking economics concepts and jargon into everyday language for the econ-curious across the Australian Public Service.
Mark Sawade
First Assistant Secretary and Chief Information Officer, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry — Digital Services Division
Mark is a passionate, committed, and respected technology leader in government with more than 20 years of experience leading policy, strategy, data, digital and technology delivery functions across government.
In his current role as Chief Information Officer at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Mark provides leadership and strategic direction on the adoption of innovative technology to support the department’s operations and ensures the delivery of technology services supporting staff across multiple government agencies.
Prior to his current role, Mark was the First Assistant Secretary of School Funding and Data Collection at the Department of Education, preceded by previous ICT senior leadership roles at the Australian Bureau of Statistics, ComSuper, and the Department of Immigration and Border Protection.
