Kate Driver, a former assistant secretary within PM&C’s APS reform office, will commence as IPAA ACT CEO next week.
The Institute of Public Administration Australia (ACT) will officially welcome its new CEO on Monday 5 February.
Driver has served as Questacon’s deputy director and general manager, and helped to set up the public sector reform office in the Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet (PM&C) with Dr Gordon de Brouwer before his appointment as APS commissioner.
She represents the latest in a string of movers and shakers who have been involved in public service minister Katy Gallagher’s APS reform agenda, who went on to be installed in key sector roles now that that foundational work is complete.
The APS reform group was subsumed into the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) last December.
Speaking to The Mandarin, Driver said she was responsible for overseeing a range of work in the APS reform team including the transformation agenda, trust and transparency, governance, risk, a pilot on long-term insights briefing, and communications.
“It was a pretty diverse role,” Driver said of her one year in PM&C.
“It gave me a really good taste, not only for the policymaking but the policy implementation, and what it was going to look like on the ground, and how we were going to measure what mattered in terms of the success or otherwise of the [reform agenda’s] first year.”
The APS reform group was established with a mission to support new ideas, best practice and innovation across the APS. Driver said her work also involved assisting her colleague Marianne Dolman with project delivery work, and input for cabinet submissions and costings.
“The scope of the role was to come and assist in establishing the first year of reform, which I did, and I’m really proud of,” Driver said.
“We successfully moved the team into the APSC in December [2023], and then it really was a good opportunity for me to step back and go, ‘What do I want to do next?’.”
Driver described the two Machinery of Government (MOG) changes involved in getting the APS reform group up and running as the best of at least 17 such stand-up processes she has witnessed across her career.
But the question as to what she should turn her professional attention to after her stint at PM&C keep leading her back to the APS values and and objectives of the four APS reform pillars: one public service embodying integrity in everything it does; putting people and business at the centre of policy and services; government being a model employer; and capability to do public service well.
“I’ve had a number of careers where I’ve been able to ask myself the questions: ‘What are my passions? What are my values? Where can I do good things with good people? And what opportunities does that kind of align with?’,” Driver said.
“When I was approaching the end of that role, there were some good opportunities to look at a few different avenues. And this was the one that, for me, brought the culmination of that experience, policy and implementation, but also just by my enthusiasm for service to community that is really practical and tangible.”
Driver joined the APS nearly 20 years ago when she accepted a six-month contract after deciding to cease practising at bar. Her first APS role was as an industrial relations and WH&S litigator, specialising in what was then the new WorkChoices legislation.
“I took a six month job in the public service and then had an accidental public service career ever since. I started my life as a barrister, and leading my life in six minute units just didn’t really fulfill me when it was trying to make profit for others,” Driver said.
“The values alignment [this job as CEO represents], of what I could bring to the table in terms of my senior leadership experience, both in the public sector, the private sector and in the philanthropic sector, was a really great opportunity to pull all three together,” she said.
IPAA ACT president and Attorney-General’s Department secretary Katherine Jones issued a statement announcing the new CEO appointment on Monday.
IPAA ACT president and Attorney-General’s Department secretary Katherine Jones issued a statement announcing Driver’s appointment on Monday.
Jones welcomed the innovative and creative leadership Driver would bring to the role, also underscoring her recent experience developing the government’s “foundational APS reform agenda”.
“Ms Driver brings a wealth of practical experience in public service, as IPAA ACT focuses on new challenges for its membership, and the public sector in Australia more broadly,” Jones said.
“On top of her extensive leadership experience and expertise in the private, public and philanthropic sectors, Ms Driver’s deep and practical understanding of the concept and practice of public service will support IPAA ACT’s goal of supporting the broader public sector,” she said.
Driver’s appointment fills the vacancy created by Caroline Walsh’s departure from the organisation last November. Walsh chose to pursue a new opportunity leading OzHelp after three years in the IPAA ACT role.
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