The Future of Work

Adam Fennessy PSM is the Victorian Public Sector Commissioner.  Adam has over 20 years of public sector experience at state and federal levels, including four years as Secretary of the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water & Planning and prior to that the Department of Environment & Primary Industries.  Adam has worked in the private sector as a partner with advisory firm Ernst & Young.  Adam has served on several boards including the Institute of Public Administration Australia (IPAA) (Victoria), Infrastructure Victoria, Monash Sustainable Development Institute and Women & Leadership Australia.

Adam is an IPAA National Fellow, IPAA Victorian Fellow and a member of the Champions of Change Coalition.  In 2018, he received a Public Service Medal (PSM) for leadership in the Victorian public sector.

Anne is the Deputy Secretary, North Division within the Community Services Operations Division at the DFFH. In this role Anne leads service delivery  spanning Child Protection and Housing and partners with Community Service Organisations, Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations, other departments, health services, Commonwealth and Local Government agencies to deliver critical services to people and communities across the North.  Anne has held a number of senior executive roles across the department (and its former incarnations) in policy, program development, corporate resources and service delivery. In 2018 Anne was named as one of IPAA Victoria’s Top 50 Public sector women.

Anne is passionate about driving better outcomes for clients and communities and working with people to achieve this. DFFH has been at the forefront of the Covid-19 response presenting many opportunities for innovation and improvement in how Government can deliver better services to  clients and communities.

Peter is a Partner in PwC’s Digital Transformation consulting team, with a focus on Government & Public Sector.  Peter has nearly 30 years’ experience, including as PwC’s national People & Organisation leader, specialising in business transformation, strategic change management, operating model simplification, ways of working, and people & workforce strategy. 

Peter is particularly passionate about the “future of work”, and the critical people, workforce, skills and change aspects.  Over the last 18 months as a result of COVID-19, Peter has researched, published and presented at numerous forums on “reimagining Victoria’s workforces” to be more flexible, inclusive, and adaptive to a hybrid digital and physical workforce and ways of working.

Nina is the Chief Executive Officer of IPAA Victoria, joining the organisation in May 2021. Prior to this Nina worked as a public servant at both federal and state levels of government. She worked as a senior executive for a number of years in Victoria and led significant community based initiatives across the environment, energy, natural resource, emergency and land management sectors. She has also led strategy and corporate groups and she supported the public health COVID response team at the Department of Health. Nina is passionate about providing opportunity and experience to all people committed to public service and has a keen focus on inclusion, women and youth.

Nick is a Partner in PwC’s Government and Public Sector Consulting practice with a focus on data driven strategy through to execution in service system reform and operating model transformation. Nick has joined PwC after twenty years with federal and state social policy departments in Australia including immigration, communities, education, training, human services, disability and health. Most recently, Nick was Deputy Secretary, Organisational Transformation, at the (then) Department of Health and Human Services, and Deputy Secretary, Public Health, Department of Health.