Vic Police IT chief becomes CenITex head
The Victorian Government's IT shared services agency CenITex has nabbed the Victoria police force's head of technology to be its new chief executive.
"New CenITex CEO announced — Michael Vanderheide," wrote Susan Sly, the director of information management & technology at fellow Victorian agency VicRoads, on Twitter yesterday.
Victoria Police confirmed the appointment in a statement, saying that Vanderheide was leaving the force's IT top spot.
"Victoria Police can confirm that the executive director infrastructure and information technology has accepted the offer of an opportunity to serve as the chief executive of CenITex, the Victorian Government's provider of IT infrastructure services," it said.
Vanderheide will be leaving Victoria Police in early July. He joined Victoria Police in October 2009 after leading the ACT Government's shared services efforts.
"Vanderheide has played an integral role in improving governance around major IT projects as well as over-sighted infrastructure for the organisation," the police said.
At the time Vanderheide joined Victoria Police, the organisation was reeling from the resignation of his predecessor, Valda Berzins, in November 2008. Berzins left Victoria Police under a cloud, with an investigation into its IT department finding 12 months later that it had a "disregard for proper procurement and contract management".
Vanderheide outlined his extensive remediation efforts at the organisation in a wide-ranging interview in mid-2010. However, at least one of the major projects that the Victoria Police is involved in — the overhaul of its front-line policing system — has been placed on ice under the new coalition state government, as Victoria Police seeks to take the problem-plagued overhaul back to basics.
If the information about his appointment as CenITex chief executive is accurate, Vanderheide will replace founding chief executive Peter Blades in the role leading the shared services agency.
Blades left CenITex in March after several years leading the organisation, which was founded in July 2008 from the merger of two existing shared services agencies overseen by the Department of Treasury and Finance.
In an interview with Government Technology Review early this month following his departure, Blades said the agency was "on track" to achieving its vision of being the preferred supplier of IT infrastructure services across the State Government. It is currently focused on rolling government departments and agencies in to use its consolidated and standardised IT infrastructure.
Currently, CenITex is led by board member Jim Monaghan, who has acted in the role since the departure of Blades and until a new chief executive could be found.