X
Government

CenITex reveals management team

New Victorian government shared services agency Cenitex has revealed the management team that will lead its operations delivering ICT infrastructure and desktop shared services to the state government.
Written by Suzanne Tindal, Contributor

New Victorian government shared services agency Cenitex has revealed the management team that will lead its operations delivering ICT infrastructure and desktop shared services to the state government.

victoria.jpg

(Credit: Globe Australia by Vince Varga, Royalty free.)

As was already known, Peter Blades has nabbed the position the organisation's CEO, having been instrumental in setting up the organisation. Previously he had a hand in the restructuring of Telecom New Zealand and Victoria's previously state-owned electricity and gas companies. He has also led major change programs in a range of public and private sector organisations.

The rest of the management team was laid bare on the web site including CIO Bruce Carlos, who is an advisory board member of the CIO Executive Council Australia and director of New Ventures Lyndon Thompson, who has worked in Telstra, the Victorian public service and the Bureau of Statistics before taking on the COO role within the state's Shared Services Centre, now a part of Cenitex.

The Telstra connection continued with Graham Bull, specialist project advisor, who gained extensive experience at the telco while upgrading and standardising Teltra's IT network and desktop infrastructure.

Telstra's now subsidiary Kaz also has a previous employee on the CenITex team in Tom Smyth, also a specialist project advisor. He spent years at the Australian IT services company, finishing as the general manager of national operations.

The board was appointed in October 2008. The chairman, Warren Hodgson was most recently secretary of the Deparment of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development, but also has experience at the head of private sector organisations.

Director Chris Gillies previously worked as group executive of Group Services at St George Bank and is a member of various boards such as Oakton, Corporate Express and Asgard Wealth Solutions. She chairs three board IT committees.

The other directors have experience on boards and executive teams in various industries such as financial services, utilities, resources, tourism, retail, health and law, with past roles varying from being general council for Alcoa to being managing director of Queen Victoria Markets.

Cenitex was formed to deliver ICT infrastructure and desktop shared services for the Victorian government, such as shared enterprise tools, identity and access management and hosting services. Customer-specific applications, business processes and ICT strategy are, however, out of its scope.

It was formed in July from the merging of two ICT shared services organisations: The Shared Services Centre and the Information and Technology Services division. The agency aims to provide more integrated and standardised technology services and to make use of economies of scale.

It has been given a level of autonomy, being outside the chain of command of the departments and their secretaries. Blades reports to the independent board of directors under the oversight of finance minister Tim Holding.

It currently supports 11,500 desktops across six of the ten Victorian government departments, according to the website. Those are the departments of Transport, Planning and Community Development, Premier and Cabinet, Primary Industries, Sustainability and Environment and Treasury and Finance.

The government owned entity will not be competing for private sector customers, but due to CenITex's assuming the role of servicing government departments, Unisys has had to relinquish its contract with the Departments Premier and Cabinet, and Treasury and Finance after it ended.

Editorial standards