Creating a culture and environment for Innovation

Dr Jill Charker, CEO of ComSuper will talk about how ComSuper is taking the first steps to create a culture of innovation and will touch on how ideas don’t have to be big to have a real impact. Jill will then introduce Paul Lowe, Head of the 2011 Australian Population Census program, who will talk about how the problem of increasing lack of participation in the Census by particular population was addressed through an innovative communications campaign.

In particular Paul will talk about how they adopted an innovative approach to using social media and the success that bought. He will also talk about how they created a culture and environment that allowed staff to not only innovate but also to excel and be inspired.

Speakers

Dr Jill Charker is the Chief Executive Officer of ComSuper, a statutory authority within the Australian Government which provides superannuation administration services for Australian Government superannuation schemes. She holds a PhD from Griffith University, and a Class 1 Honours degree in psychology, majoring in statistics. In addition, she has completed an Executive Masters degree in Public Administration through the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG). She is also a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. In 2012, Dr Charker was a national winner of the Australian Financial Review BOSS Young Executive of the Year award. In 2013, she was awarded one of two national scholarships to attend the Harvard University Women’s Leadership Program.

Paul Lowe was the Head of the 2011 Australian Population Census program. The 2011 Census was awarded a Gold Medal in the 2013 Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Sector Management. Paul has over 25 years’ experience as a census practitioner working in Australia and overseas. He has worked as a census technical advisor for the National Statistical Offices in PNG, Timor-Leste, Vietnam, and Thailand. He is also a member of the International Technical Advisory Boards for both the Afghanistan and Iraq censuses. He was the principle editor of the United Nations publication "Handbook on Census Management for Population and Housing Censuses". He has been responsible for leading the introduction of a wide variety of innovations in Census operations, communication programs and processing.