Revenue NSW’s former Chief Digital Officer, Kathleen Mackay (pictured), has picked up the top gong in this year’s CIO50 Australia, becoming the first woman to take out the country’s premier award for senior technology and digital executives.
Revenue NSW Deputy Secretary, Scott Johnston said Ms Mackay’s leadership was instrumental in enabling innovation in an environment where agility and risk taking were sometimes overlooked.
“Kathleen patiently and consistently nudged the culture forward. She led by example and showed her peers how new ways of working could deliver positive outcomes for customers and Revenue NSW,” Mr Johnston said.
“She championed the use of artificial intelligence coupled with advanced analytics to identify vulnerable customers early and to better target fines enforcement action.
“The program diverts vulnerable customers away from the collections process and offers an alternative way to resolve debts.
“Kathleen took process automation from idea to reality and supported the team to implement significant changes across Revenue NSW.”
Kathleen was the Chief Digital Officer at Revenue NSW until November 2021.
Mr Johnston thanked Kathleen for her contribution to Revenue NSW.
“Kathleen’s remarkable contribution to the organisation will continue to be felt for many years to come,” Mr Johnston said.
In a post online, Ms Mackay said she was honoured to take the top gong for her role in leading the agency’s digital transformation.
“The award recognises the culture change and new thinking around how governments engage with citizens and the work of the department in simultaneously transforming customer services and internal operations. The technology uplift is remarkable as is the improvement in organisational resilience and staff engagement,” she said.
“Our people are always our number one asset. It’s the teams that have created, innovated, iterated, and delivered these programs of work. A huge shout out to everyone who has played a role, all the staff at Revenue NSW, the NSW Department of Customer Service and across the NSW public sector.
“A special mention to Scott Johnston for caring enough to nominate and support me, and to Mick Mioduszewski and team, as the analytics brains behind the vulnerable detection algorithm that particularly caught the eye of the judges.
“Thank you to Byron Connolly for his insights and for being exceptionally well informed about the tech sector, thank you to #IDG, to this year’s very influential judging panel, and thanks Slack for sponsoring the event – it was so good to get together in person and share stories,” Ms Mackay said.
