The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) has found its new CEO, announcing on Wednesday that Chris Fechner will slot into the role.
Fechner will oversee the DTA’s operations, which is responsible for managing the strategic coordination and oversight functions related to the federal government’s digital and IT investment, as well as providing advice to the Minister responsible for digital transformation Stuart Robert regarding Australia’s five-year digital transformation strategy.
Fechner is currently the Queensland Government’s chief customer and digital officer and was previously the chief digital and product officer at Service NSW.
He will commence the CEO role from mid-October and is slated to be in the role for five years.
“Fechner will bring proven and strong leadership to the DTA, as it plays its key role in our ambitious push to become one of the top three digital governments in the world by 2025,” Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business Stuart Robert said.
Fechner will be the DTA’s fourth official CEO, taking over from Randall Brugeaud.
Brugeaud left the CEO post in July to lead a new government taskforce charged with investigating ways to cut red tape and simplify trade processes and systems.
Brugeaud held the role of DTA CEO for three years after moving over from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, where he was the deputy Australian statistician.
Since Brugead’s departure, Peter Alexander has been serving as the agency’s acting CEO as it searched for a permanent replacement.
The DTA is currently monitoring various government tech projects. In a document prepared for a Senate committee in March, the DTA disclosed there were 84 IT projects over AU$10 million in value underway by Australian government entities as of December 2020. Some of these projects included the redevelopment of myGov and the whole-of-government digital identity program.
Earlier this week, the DTA and Mastercard announced they were working together to determine whether the latter’s digital identity service could enable Australians to digitally verify their age and identity.
