Queensland appoints whole-of-government CIO

Professor Peter Grant

Just a day on from issuing a statement that it was still looking for a whole-of-government CIO, the Queensland government has announced that it has appointed Professor Peter Grant to the role.

According to the government, Grant began in the role today and was appointed following an extensive merit selection process following the creation of the role by Premier Anna Bligh in July.

According to the minister for information and communication technology, Simon Finn, the whole-of-government role was a first of its kind for the country.

“This new role will have a mandate to make the tough calls on Queensland's ICT policy development and have enough clout to drive change, innovation and develop strong ICT infrastructure,” Finn said in a statement.

“The QGCIO will be responsible for whole-of-Government ICT direction including National Broadband Network master planning, effective working relationships with the ICT industry, and building ICT capacity development across the public sector.”

Despite the 'whole of government' mandate, Grant isn't new to the vagaries of the Queensland government CIO role; he served as Queensland Government chief information officer from 2005 to 2008 before being invited by Microsoft to take up the position of State Director at the software giant. According to his LinkedIn profile, he helped broker a memorandum of understanding between Microsoft and the Queensland Government which led to a renegotiation of Microsoft’s licencing arrangements. He has also worked as CIO at Queensland Health.

Finn said the Director-General of the Department of Public Works will remain responsible for the implementation of ICT projects and service delivery, including oversight of CITEC, Queensland State Archives and Smart Service Queensland.

“By separating the QGCIO role from service delivery areas, there will be better scrutiny and advice across all departments in relation to ICT policy and portfolio development and shared services policy,” he said.

According to Finn, Grant brings more than 40 years’ experience to the role, including senior executive roles at the Department of Public Works, Queensland Health and the Department of Transport and Main Roads.

“He also comes to the position with a significant record of achievement in the private IT sector, including senior roles with multinational organisations Microsoft and Gartner,” Finn said.

“In addition, Peter has diverse consulting experience, and was most recently engaged as an independent IT consultant with the Federal Departments of Human Services; Climate Change and Energy Efficiency; and Employment, Education and Workplace Relations.”

Grant has a Bachelor of Business and a Research Masters Degree in Information Systems and has held academic roles at the School Information Technology and Electrical Engineering at the University of Queensland and at the Faculty of Science and Technology at Queensland University of Technology (QUT).

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