Danielle Elston, Managing Director of Good Government Advisory, brings over two decades of executive leadership experience to her mission of helping governments do good things—and do them well. With a focus on strategic advice, management and leadership training, organisational reform, and facilitation, her work is dedicated to building capability and fostering excellence across the public sector.
Through Good Government Advisory, Danielle collaborates with organisations to simplify complexity, align stakeholders, and deliver real-world outcomes. She also shares insights into governance and integrity as the host of The Westminster Tradition podcast, inspiring leaders to champion better government.

Kylie Barber is the Assistant Commissioner of the Integrity, Performance and Employment Policy Branch at the Australian Public Service Commission. The Branch provides policy and implementation advice on employment, integrity and code of conduct matters within the APS, and supports the APS Commissioner in the exercise of his statutory functions under the Public Service Act 1999 and subordinate legislation.

Kylie has almost 30 years’ experience as a HR practitioner spanning all three tiers of government: Local, State and Federal. The last 11 years’ of her professional career have been spent employed in the Commonwealth Government. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours), majoring in Employment Relations and Human Resource Management, and a Certificate IV in Government Investigations.

Catherine is a lawyer and public sector leader with a demonstrated commitment to human rights, integrity and making a positive contribution to delivering public value. Catherine has been leading teams across the Victorian public service for over 15 years and is currently the Director of Police Policy and Strategy at the Department of Justice and Community Safety in Victoria. In this role, Catherine and their team provide direct support to the Minister for Police, lead the development of legislative and regulatory reform relevant to the police portfolio, and lead a myriad of projects and working groups with key stakeholders to bring about meaningful change.

Prior to this role, Catherine led the Human Rights legal practice at the Victorian Government Solicitor’s Office for over a decade, where they provided advice to the Attorney-General and departmental clients about obligations, risks and developments in relation to complex human rights and other public law issues. A highlight in that role was providing advice to government on the human rights compatibility of public health directions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2022, Catherine completed their Executive Master of Public Administration through the Australian and New Zealand School of Government, for which they are now an Alumni Ambassador.

Deborah joined as Deputy Director-General (Translink) in August 2024 and leads the delivery of customer focused passenger transport services across Queensland, including policy, planning, ticketing, contract management and customer services, as well as a coordinated approach in the delivery of the significant rail infrastructure pipeline.

Deborah has extensive experience in various roles in the public sector, most recently public transport operations and strategy including her prior role as General Manager of the Rail Passenger Group for KiwiRail, and more recently the role of National Manager of Multimodal Integration, at the New Zealand Transport Agency, where she led operationalising the national direction in urban mobility, public transport, rail and freight. Deborah has also worked in local government and management consultancies, served on commercial boards, has a PhD in Biology from Queen’s University in Canada and is a member of the Institute of Directors and Global Women.

Prior to her appointment as a Deputy Commissioner of the NACC, Deputy Commissioner Kilgour was a Deputy Commissioner of the Victorian Independent Broad-Based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC). She was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants (RCMPI), a Deputy Secretary in the Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety (DJCS), a legal aid policy adviser in the UK and a community legal centre lawyer in NSW.

Deputy Commissioner Kilgour has a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Laws from the University of NSW and was admitted as a legal practitioner in 2001. She is also a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Deputy Commissioner Kilgour’s term of appointment as a Deputy Commissioner of the NACC is for five years.

Prior to her appointment as a Deputy Commissioner of the NACC, Deputy Commissioner Kilgour was a Deputy Commissioner of the Victorian Independent Broad-Based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC). She was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants (RCMPI), a Deputy Secretary in the Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety (DJCS), a legal aid policy adviser in the UK and a community legal centre lawyer in NSW.

Deputy Commissioner Kilgour has a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Laws from the University of NSW and was admitted as a legal practitioner in 2001. She is also a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. Deputy Commissioner Kilgour’s term of appointment as a Deputy Commissioner of the NACC is for five years.

Stephen Wood joined the Commission in January 2017. He has a MBA from Griffith University. During the past five years, Stephen has worked on several investigations including operations Ember, Lancer, Eclipse, Paragon and Hector. Stephen has contributed to a number of Commission publications including Mature corruption control: the key outcomes of better practice and Corruption and integrity in the NSW public sector – an assessment of current trends and events.

Stephen has a particular interest in leadership and organisational culture. For 15 years prior to joining the Commission, Stephen was a member of the leadership team within the then Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. Stephen played an instrumental role in the resetting of that Department’s integrity culture in 2005. This was followed by senior executive roles in Canberra focused on corporate governance with responsibility for planning, reporting, finance policy and audit. Stephen moved to Sydney in 2009 and over the next four years, as Deputy and then Chief Executive Officer of the Migration Agent’s Registration Authority, Stephen played a leadership role in driving integrity reform in the migration agent industry. Stephen returned to Canberra in 2014 and contributed to a revamping of the integrity framework for the Department of Immigration and Border Protection at that time.

Stephen’s earlier roles in Suncorp-Metway and Comcare involved leadership of significant systems and organisational change projects where team culture was a significant element of success.

Dr Caroline Croser-Barlow is CEO of the Front Project, a philanthropically-funded social enterprise working to redress disadvantage through improving our early childhood system.

She is a former senior public servant with experience across a range of areas, including early childhood education, disability in education, corporate services, climate change, energy, environment, and social policy.
Her most recent public service role involved supporting Royal Commissioner the Hon Julia Gillard in her work on early childhood education and care.

She holds a PhD in Politics and International Relations and an MA, both from Lancaster University; a Graduate Certificate in Applied Economics from the University of Adelaide; and a Bachelor of Arts from the ANU.

Caroline is co-host of The Westminster Tradition, a top-ranking podcast unpacking lessons for the public service, starting with the Robodebt Royal Commission.

Frances is the Executive Director of the Shaping Futures & Data Insights team in the NSW Cabinet Office, which serves as an evidence function for the Cabinet Office, and a foresight and systems change function for the NSW public service.

Frances is interested in what good practice looks like for evidence-based policy when a range of community, civil society, and research actors are involved in complex issues alongside public servants, and when the range of relevant evidence sources has expanded. 

 Frances led the original development of the National Disability Data Asset pilot (2018-21) with data and disability policy colleagues nationally and members of a Disability Advisory Council. She has since co-led a major systems change project in NSW around providing shared access to government-held data for Aboriginal communities and understanding how to operationalise the principles of Aboriginal Data Sovereignty, with colleagues from the NSW Coalition of Aboriginal Peaks and NSW Aboriginal Affairs.

Australian Government Public Servant and Visiting Fellow at the School of Cybernetics, Australian National University

Dr Cathy Fussell is an Australian Government public servant and academic. As a public servant, Cathy has over 20 years’ experience in policy and program delivery, and data analytics strategy and capability development. Her work currently focuses on using data for outcomes-driven policy adaption. As an academic, Dr Fussell focuses on rethinking power and value in light of complex systems theory and the system dynamics of ethical governing and data use. Cathy is a visiting fellow at ANU’s School of Cybernetics and a Sir Roland Wilson Foundation alumni and board member. She is an active champion of APS-academic partnerships.

Dr Mark Sullivan, the Chief Risk Officer of National Disability Insurance Agency, is a senior executive responsible for enterprise risk, compliance, fraud investigations and intelligence, and internal audit. He leads a large and geographically dispersed team to safeguard the integrity of the National Disability Insurance Scheme so that sustainable, reasonable and necessary support continues to be available for our participants.

Mark is a passionate leader who strives to enable others to realise their full potential through the clear articulation of vision and strategy with compassion, empathy and authenticity. He is broadly recognised as a credible and authoritative adviser in the area of risk management, emergency management, fraud risk, strategy, change, service delivery, governance, and management.

Some of Mark’s career achievements include:
– Development and implementation of an organisational-wide risk strategy for over twenty medium to large government entities
– Application of leading practice project management, program management methodology and program risk management services to multi-billion-dollar government reform initiatives

Mark has also led the coordination of organisational governance, organisational planning, risk management, business continuity, fraud control planning and anti-corruption planning for the Australian Federal Police and a number of Australian Government entities, including the Attorney General’s Department. Mark has represented Australia in New Zealand, the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Chile, Thailand, Switzerland, the United Nations and several Pacific Island Countries in the areas of emergency management policy, research, development and policy discourse, technical capability negotiations, capacity building, and community development.

Mark holds undergraduate qualifications in emergency management, education, and fraud control, and a doctorate in law.