Treasury appoints new tech chief

The federal Treasury has named Heath Axelby its new permanent chief information officer after a six-month stint as acting tech chief.

Axelby took up the top job on a permanent basis at the beginning of this month following a short executive search.

He has been interim information services branch assistant secretary since former CIO Mike Webb became the department’s major IT projects branch assistant secretary in April 2021.

Both branches sit under the chief operating officer division within the corporate and foreign investment group.

Webb spent two-and-a-half years as CIO, replacing Eamonn Rooney in an official capacity in November 2018.

Rooney is now a delivery transformation executive in Defence’s ICT delivery division, which as of last month is being headed up by another former Treasury CIO, Peter Alexander.

A spokesperson for the department said Axelby “brings a wealth of experience to the role”, having first joined Treasury in July 2018.

It is not clear what role Axelby held at the department before becoming acting CIO last year.

Last financial year, Treasury implemented a new federal payments management system to automate agency payments to the states and territories.

Other IT projects undertaken in recent years include a desktop modernisation project, according to Treasury’s latest annual report.