Dr Ian Oppermann is leaving his role as the NSW Chief Data Scientist to join former politician Victor Dominello in a new venture.
Having served as ACS President from 2020 to 2021, Dr Oppermann announced his departure on LinkedIn, saying that after almost eight years in the role, he was “handing in the NSW Chief Data Scientist badge.”
“It has certainly been an interesting ride,” Dr Oppermann said.
“It started with helping to establish the NSW Data Analytics Centre (the DAC) back in 2015.
“From these early beginnings trying to help government think differently about use of data, to developing and promoting data sharing frameworks, the development and evolution of the ‘PIF’ tool and finally to the development of the NSW AI Assurance Framework.”
As the first Chief Data Scientist of NSW, Dr Oppermann led the way in transforming how the NSW government understood and used data to drive decisions affecting its citizens, including through the COVID-19 period.
Dr Oppermann cofounded ServiceGen – which touts itself as being “government’s strategic partner for trusted service transformation” – with former NSW Minister for Customer Service, Victor Dominello in 2023.
In addition to his role at ServiceGen, Dr Oppermann is also Industry Professor at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) a part-time director of Standards Australia.
He has contributed to six books and co-authored more than 120 papers which have been cited more than 3,500 times.