AIIA NSW Ministerial Forum: Innovation Strategy Update

Minister for Innovation and Better Regulation 
NSW Government

Matt Kean was born in Wahroonga on September 16, 1981, and became the Member for Hornsby on March 26, 2011.

The next year, he was elected to chair the NSW Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on the Office of the Valuer General, later recommending radical changes to the system of land valuation in NSW.

Re-elected in March 2015, Mr Kean continued his advocacy for the people of Hornsby and counts amongst his achievements the completion of the $120 million first stage – and the start of the $200 million second stage – of the Hornsby Hospital rebuild.

He is a tireless campaigner on mental health issues and suicide prevention, especially as it impacts our young people. His first speech in parliament after his 2011 election was dedicated to a young friend who had recently taken his own life.

On January 30, 2017, Mr Kean was elected to Cabinet as the Minister for Innovation and Better Regulation, responsible for portfolio as diverse as consumer protection, strata laws and workplace safety.

With a passion for innovation, he is determined to make NSW the innovation and start-up epicentre of the Asia Pacific.

Director of Innovation, Westpac Group Strategy + M&A
Westpac

Kate joined Westpac in November 2016 as the Director of Innovation within the Westpac Group Strategy + M&A team. She leads a 20+ strong team of strategists, designers, technologists and entrepreneurs that sit in Group Strategy + M&A with a remit to accelerate and realise strategically important outcomes for Westpac.

A core focus of Kate’s experience is her strength and experience in empowering and enabling individuals and teams to connect and collaborate expertise across an enterprise to solve real customer problems.

At Westpac she has designed and implemented a framework to successfully shape and map the journey through the often confronting and complex landscape that is innovation, change and transformation.
Kate is passionately committed to collaborate with Westpac’s 40,000 plus employees to reimagine the financial services ecosystem in Australia. For Westpac this is articulated the company wide focus on transformation  to deliver a service experience that surprises and delights Westpac’s 14+ million customers.

Prior to joining Westpac, Kate’s career saw her appointed as the first Head of Social Media for the UK Government where she devised and delivered bespoke social media strategies and campaigns for Cabinet Office, Departments and Ministers’ to enable government-wide social media adoption including training and coaching 121 key stakeholders.

Highlights of this role saw Kate deliver a Digital Communications Strategy for the London 2012 Olympics, Digital & Social Media Engagement for Department of Children, Schools & Families, ministerial engagement strategies using social media and youth engagement for Number 10 and the Cabinet Office.

Director, Innovation NSW
NSW Department of Finance, Services and Innovation

Thea Knill leads the multidisciplinary team of entrepreneurs, innovators and policy professionals to disrupt and humanise NSW Government. She is passionate about creating the opportunities that drive transformation.

Her career spans almost twenty years across private enterprise, local and state governments in Australia and Denmark. The majority of her experience is in complex policy development, negotiation and sustained change.

She has delivered a centralised approach to gambling policy reform in South Australia; designed an outcomes framework for human services in NSW, adopted across government; and shaped the Social Innovation Council from inception to leading influencer and change maker in the NGO and government sectors.

In 2016 she led a cross government strategic team to design an implementation roadmap for reforms that will transform the way government interacts with innovators and responds to disruption – The Innovation Strategy. In the last 12 months she has headed up the implementation team, Innovation NSW, taking complex government problems and turning ideas into game changing solutions.

Director
SwiftFare

Martin  is an entrepreneur with significant software development experience, and a deep interest in improving transport outcomes for people with disabilities. Martin is currently working on SwiftFare, a platform that revolutionises taxi travel for people with disabilities.

After developing an interest in computing from an early age, Martin could often be found tinkering on various projects on his home computer in an attempt to learn by immersing himself in the field. He graduated from Sydney University with a Bachelor of Computer Science and Technology (Hons).

Martin is an experienced software developer, with over 15 years experience at a number of espected research and product development organisations including Atlassian and Avaya Labs.

In 2012, Martin co-founded Metarove, a mobile app to help people find accessible public transport. More recently, Martin co-founded SwiftFare, which is working to replace the paper dockets used to access taxi subsidies with a digital alternative.