Virtual On the Couch with Rick Persse

Rick was appointed to lead the Department for Treasury and Finance in April 2022.

He joined after 6 successful years as Chief Executive of the Department for Education, and prior to that as Chief Executive of the Attorney-General’s Department for 4 years.

With expertise in policy and strategy development, transformation, public sector reform and project delivery, Rick’s knowledge of public administration comes from an expansive career working as an executive at a variety of South Australian central government agencies.

Prior to being appointed to the role of Chief Executive, Attorney-General’s Department, Rick worked with government and non-government clients as PricewaterhouseCoopers SA Government and Health Leader.

Rick has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Adelaide and a Graduate Certificate in Public Sector Management from Griffith University.

Rick was recognised as Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the General Division in January 2024 for significant service to public administration, and to the community of South Australia.

Jamie Briggs is the Adelaide Managing Partner and South Australian Government leader at PwC.
He was previously a member of the Australian Parliament, serving in the capacity of Federal Minister for Cities and the Built Environment and the Federal Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development. Prior to entering Parliament he was a Senior Advisor to the then Prime Minister the Hon. John Howard from 2004-2007 advising on workplace relations reform.
He has completed his MBA at the University of Adelaide and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Relevant Experience

Throughout Jamie’s 15 year career in the Australian Government he has worked extensively on significant public policy issues, managing a range of stakeholders and delivering high performance outcomes. More specifically in his role as Federal Infrastructure Minister, Jamie worked very closely with State Governments to design and implement major infrastructure projects ranging across Australia. This included developing unique and innovative approaches to deliver projects such as the implementation of the Australian Government infrastructure asset recycling programme, the development of the Western Sydney Airport supporting and infrastructure and the first of its kind concessional loan for the 2nd stage of the WestConnex project in Sydney. In addition, Jamie was appointed as the first ever Federal Cities Minister beginning the process of establishing the city deal concept in Australia.

Since joining PwC in February 2017, Jamie has worked with a range of issues with clients to implement strategies for dealing with significant public interest issues to achieve high quality outcomes. This has included developing PwC’s approach to cities with the development of the ‘CityPulse’ and working with private sector clients to develop solutions to important problems by providing a deep understanding of government and its processes driven from extensive experience in the government sector.