Ethical Leadership Forum

Cathy commenced as Chief Executive to lead the new Department for Child Protection (DCP) in South Australia in October 2016.

Cathy joined the department from Queensland, where she was Deputy DirectorGeneral, Child Family and Community Services, Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services from 2013 to 2016.

Cathy brings more than 15 years of experience as a senior public servant in Queensland, working in and across strategic policy, legislative reform, planning and service delivery roles in the areas of child protection, youth justice, disability services and domestic violence.

Cathy has undergraduate qualifications in law and postgraduate qualifications in law and public administration, including an Executive Masters of Public Administration (EMPA), ANZSOG.

She has previously been a Director of ANROWS - Australia’s National Research Organisation on Women’s Safety and is currently Chair of, National Forum for Protecting Australia’s Children.

In 2018 Cathy was appointed to the ANZSOG Alumni Advisory Council.

Dr Attracta Lagan is a leading Australian business ethicist who has worked extensively in the corporate area in Australia and throughout Asia. She seeks to challenge leaders to develop positive values-led workplace cultures that balance what is good for business with what is good for society.
Attracta is a subject expert in behaviour ethics. She draws on the latest research from behaviour science to ensure leaders are forewarned and forearmed about their ethical risks and the ways in which an organisation’s cultural context can corrupt its employees.

She has worked alongside the leaders of many major enterprises in Australia and Asia helping Exco teams measure and benchmark culture, draft organizational values and business principle statements and engage employees in their ethical accountabilities.

Darren believes that co-design is an essential element in creating system-level outcomes for society. He works to improve large, public systems like the health system, the tax system and the social services system.

As a ThinkPlace Partner, Darren’s focus is on applying design thinking to intractable challenges, in both OECD and developing countries. He has worked extensively in health, international development, border management, energy systems, social protection, regulatory compliance and digital government.

Darren co-designs in complex, sensitive environments to develop strategy, programmes, policy and services. He has pioneered powerful approaches for linking strategy and architecture to the experience of users, and advises executive groups, programme/project teams and governance boards on how to optimise their impact when taking on these types of at-scale initiatives. Whether facilitating a senior forum in Canberra or conducting ethnographic research in a village in Uganda, Darren’s approach is grounded in the need to build public good.

As ThinkPlace’s Head of Digital, he has had both a strategic and a sleeves-up role in the design of national-level digital systems. Darren serves as ThinkPlace’s Chief Ethicist.

Steven Marshall is South Australia’s 46th Premier.

He was elected to the South Australian Parliament as the Member for Norwood in 2010. His electorate has since been renamed Dunstan.

In 2013, Mr Marshall became the Leader of the Liberal Party and the State Opposition.

He led the Party to victory on March 17, 2018.

Mr Marshall is responsible for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Defence and Space Industries, the Arts, Veterans’ Affairs and Multicultural Affairs.

Prior to entering public life, Mr Marshall worked in the manufacturing industry, running his family’s furniture manufacturing business Marshall Furniture from 1997.

Mr Marshall was born and educated in Adelaide, South Australia. He completed his secondary schooling at Immanuel College before studying at the University of South Australia.

He graduated with a Business, Marketing degree. He also received an MBA from Durham University.

Mr Marshall is a patron and ambassador of numerous sporting and community organisations.

He has lived in the Dunstan area all his adult life and is the father of two children – Charlie and Georgie.

Appointed on 1 July 2014, Commissioner for Public Sector Employment Erma Ranieri works passionately towards creating a world-leading public sector that serves South Australians well, does what it says it will do, and to which every public servant is proud to belong.

With the role of the public sector being to serve and support South Australia to thrive, Erma leads sector-wide reform to modernise the public sector and continue to build on its value and service to the South Australian community.

Erma has worked for more than 30 years to help organisations optimise productivity and employee wellbeing. She was named a 2014 Telstra Business Woman of the Year as SA Winner of the Telstra Community and Government Award for her role in leading transformational change throughout the public sector.

With a key focus on flexibility, diversity and leadership development to ensure the public sector is positioned as an Employer of Choice, Erma continues to challenge cultural and structural barriers to drive innovative, collaborative and connected services for the community.