Digital Leadership Day New South Wales

Settle in, grab a coffee, and meet a few friendly faces before we begin.

A short welcome, plus a few quick tips to help you connect, share, and get real value from the day. We’ll also run a couple of quick polls to see what everyone’s interested in and what people are working on right now.

A short briefing from the Chair to get everyone aligned, comfortable, and ready for a great day of ideas and connection.

Government 3.0 demands a fundamental shift in how public sector leaders think, operate, and collaborate across systems. That shift in thinking is required from government leaders, reframing digital leadership as an enterprise-wide responsibility, not a technology function. This session will equip you with practical perspectives on leading laterally, aligning policy with delivery, and shaping operating models that enable connected, outcomes-driven government

• Advance leadership models that enable whole-of-government decision-making
• Transform siloed structures into connected systems that deliver shared outcomes
• Optimise the role of digital, data, and AI as enablers of policy execution
• Bolster accountability and trust while accelerating responsible innovation

• Prioritising customer centricity and collaboration - NSW Telco Authority’s five 5-year roadmap developed to involve customers in tech trials and increase adoption
• Introducing technological capabilities iteratively - identifying building blocks of change to unlock value early, focusing on transition and taking teams on the journey
• Leveraging data insights to drive better decisions - bringing data sets together to coordinate emergency response and prioritise work based on data, not just ‘who shouts the loudest’
• Adjusting mindsets to enable change - transitioning from reactive to proactive transformation and leadership

AI is changing how work gets done — but leading through this shift is as much about people as it is about technology. As public sector teams learn to work alongside AI tools, leaders are being asked to create clarity, confidence, and a sense of purpose amid rapid change. This session unpacks what it takes to build digitally mature organisations — where roles, accountability, and learning keep pace with innovation.

• Leadership for digital maturity - clarifying roles, decisions, and ownership in a tech-driven world
• As leaders, how can we cultivate a leadership style that thrives amidst the complexities of tech team dynamics
• Pathways for reskilling and redeployment in the public sector
• Building literacy and confidence to work alongside AI - leading people, not just technology

Amith Shetty

E/Clinical Director, Strategy Access and Partnerships, NSW Ministry of Health

Lucy Poole

Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Strategy, Planning and Performance, Digital Transformation Agency

Deirdre O’Donnell

Executive Director, Customer, Digital and Data, Value NSW – Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure

Emma Dahms

Former General Manager IT Strategy and Architecture, iCare NSW

Perfect time to swap notes and compare what’s working across teams and sectors.

“Digital government” now means more than online forms and portals. AI and automation are changing how services run day to day, but the biggest gains come when agencies redesign the process around the technology: clarifying decision points, strengthening governance, and creating safe handoffs between people and AI-enabled tools. This discussion explores how public sector leaders can modernise end-to-end service workflows to be smarter and faster, while remaining accountable, auditable, and centred on public value.

• How can leaders redesign service processes to make AI additive, with clear human-in-the-loop steps, escalation paths, and decision rights?
• What governance and risk controls need to be built into redesigned workflows from the start (data quality, privacy, model oversight, auditability, and assurance)?
• In the role of a leader, how do you instil agile thinking to reshape traditional processes within the public sector
• How should leaders approach internal delivery and vendor partnerships so tools can evolve without creating fragmentation, unmanaged risk, or inconsistent decisions across channels?

Glen Babington

Chief Operating Officer, University of Technology Sydney

Karen Ko

Chief Digital Officer, Revenue NSW

Jessica Stewart

Executive Director Strategy, Policy and Commissioning - Family and Community Services Insights, Analysis & Research, Department of Communities and Justice

• Shifting from transactional to strategic procurement: How procurement leaders can enable agile, AI-ready service delivery through outcome-based contracts and flexible supplier engagement
• Embedding trust, transparency, and ethics in tech sourcing: Meeting public expectations around bias, safety, and explainability
• Navigating complexity and compliance: Balancing probity, risk, and innovation in procurement frameworks built for a fast-evolving technology landscape

Our interactive roundtables give you space to swap notes with peers. Hosted by government and industry leaders, they blend lived experience with practical insights. Bring your biggest challenges, wins, and lessons, and leave with ideas you can apply straight away.

Grab lunch, have a wander, and chat with industry partners and peers about practical ideas you can take back to work. Arguably the most important part of the day!

• Building compelling, future-proof business cases - how to quantify benefits, manage uncertainty, and create financial sustainability within a constrained fiscal environment
• Financial governance - how should the public sector should be approaching financial governance oversight in this new era
• Finance systems and tech - the benefits of using new technologies to aid planning, reporting and budgeting
• Partnering across strategy, tech, and delivery - strengthening collaboration between finance, digital, and operational leaders to ensure alignment, accountability, and adaptive funding models

As AI and new technologies reshape how governments plan, deliver, and make decisions, leaders must think beyond pilots and tools. The focus needs to be on strategy, structure, and stewardship. This discussion explores how executives can align AI with long-term reform goals, modernise foundations, and make confident choices amid ongoing uncertainty.

• What counts as a “good” use case: citizen benefit vs agency efficiency
• Measuring impact - beyond cost savings to public trust and social outcomes

Scott Johnston

Deputy Secretary, Corporate Services, Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure

Josh Wagner

Arizona State Chief Data and Analytics Officer, State of Arizona

Samantha Yorke

Authority Member, Chief AI Officer, Australian Communications and Media Authority

Chris Hanger

Chief Operating Officer, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water

Frances Valintine Facilitator

Founder, academyEX and Board Chair, aEX Education, academyEX

We’ll pull out a few highlights from the day, share what’s coming next, and point you to ways to stay connected.