Executive leadership

Liza Carroll
Director-General

BEd, MEd (Hons)

Liza joined the Department of Housing and Public Works in August 2015. In her role as the Director-General, Liza leads the department in the delivery of a range of housing, building, sports, digital and procurement services across Queensland. She provides impactful leadership in order to enable whole-of-government collaboration in delivering on government’s commitments and priorities.

Liza previously held the role of Associate Secretary, Head of Indigenous Affairs in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, where she was responsible for bringing together over 1,500 staff from 8 different departments to form the new Indigenous Affairs portfolio in 100 locations across Australia. Prior to this, Liza was the Deputy Secretary in the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs with responsibility for housing, homelessness, families, children, women’s issues, gambling and community services.

Liza has a Master of Education (Hons) majoring in Sociology and a Bachelor of Education. She was awarded the Public Service Medal for her work leading ‘Ahead of the Game: Blueprint for Reform in the Australian Public Service’.

Trish Woolley
Deputy Director-General, Housing, Homelessness and Sport

LLB, BSocWk

Trish joined the Department of Housing and Public Works in September 2016. She has almost 20 years’ experience in public administration, working across a range of social policy and service delivery agencies in State Government (Queensland and Victoria) and the Commonwealth Government (Department of Human Services, Department of Social Services and Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet).

Trish is an experienced leader of social policy reforms nationally, while contributing to the critical business transformation and modernisation of a number of social policy agencies to improve government delivery of key services and improve policy capability.

Graham Atkins
Deputy Director-General, Building Policy and Asset Management

BASc (Quantity Surveying), ADip App Sc (Building)

Graham has vast experience in the building and construction industry, spanning a number of decades. Graham has contributed to the Executive Leadership Team in his role as Deputy Director-General since joining the department in July 2011. Graham has held senior executive positions within other government departments, including Deputy Director-General of the Department of Education and Training, where he was responsible for infrastructure planning and delivery. Graham holds a Queensland Open Builders Licence.

Sharon Bailey
Acting Deputy Director-General, Portfolio Strategy and Chief Advisor Queensland Government Procurement

BSocWk, BA, PgD-Arts

Sharon joined Department of Housing and Public Works in April 2019 and brings extensive policy implementation experience across Federal and State jurisdictions of government. Most recently, she spent 7years with the Australian Government, undertaking both corporate and policy roles within the Department of Social Services. This followed numerous economic and social policy roles across the Queensland Government, including the Departments of the Premier and Cabinet, Public Works and Families and Communities.

Richard Cassidy
Assistant Director-General, Building Legislation and Policy

BCom

Richard Cassidy commenced as Assistant Director-General, Building Legislation and Policy in February 2019 and brings many years’ strategic leadership experience within public sector environments. Richard’s approach is characterised by a strong focus on outcomes and a demonstrated ability to develop policy and strategy solutions, which meet the needs of diverse stakeholder groups.

Richard has previously worked for the department as the Executive Director, Office of the Chief Advisor Procurement, where he led the development and implementation of the Buy Queensland procurement policy to deliver broader economic, social and environmental outcomes for Queensland through the government’s procurement spend.

Richard has also spent time as a management consultant providing infrastructure advisory services and prior to that working for Queensland Health implementing large system-wide reforms.

Andrew Spina
Deputy Director-General, Services Delivery and Operations

BSc (Comp)

Andrew has worked in the Queensland public sector for more than 35 years and has extensive experience in leading the delivery of digital transformation, digital service delivery and shared government services.

Andrew has undertaken a number of Deputy Director-General and Chief Information Officer roles providing strategic digital leadership in the Department of Communities, Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation, Department of Public Works and Housing; and roles in CITEC and Treasury.

Dallas Stower
Acting Deputy Director-General, Transformation and Enabling Technologies

BBus (Comp), GradCert (PSM) GAICD

Dallas has over 30 years’ experience in the ICT industry across a range of senior leadership positions. In his role as Assistant Director-General, Digital Platforms and Data, Dallas leads the development and implementation of initiatives that strengthen Queensland’s ICT service delivery. Dallas is responsible for CITEC, Strategic ICT Projects, Smart Service Queensland and Data Sharing and Analysis.

Dallas commenced his ICT career with the Department of Defence in Canberra and followed up with a number of roles in the Australian Public Service before returning to his home state of Queensland. His senior leadership roles in Queensland include Assistant Director-General, Strategic ICT; General Manager, CITEC; Executive Director, Telecommunications and Digital Economy Coordination Office; and Chief Information Officer, Queensland Rail.

Irene Violet
Acting Deputy Director-General, Customer and Digital Strategy

BHSc, BA (Psych), MBA, GAICD

Irene has led the government priority to develop and deliver responsive government services to improve the lives of Queenslanders as Assistant Director General, Responsive Government since July 2018. During that time Irene also participated in a 6 month interchange with the Department of Employment, Small Business and Training, as acting Deputy Director-General, Investment where she was responsible for the investment in the Government’s vocational education and training programs, small business and employment grants and programs, as well as training infrastructure.

Prior to that, Irene was the Assistant Director-General, Queensland Shared Services with responsibility for modernising and optimising the shared services used by 25 Queensland Government agencies and departments. She has also held a number of senior executive roles at WorkCover Queensland, with responsibilities  for corporate services, customers services and specialist advisory teams

Irene is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Robyn Turbit
Assistant Director-General, Corporate Services

BCom, BEcon

In her career spanning over 40 years, Robyn has worked in various public and private sectors, predominantly in accounting, auditing and governance functions and has undertaken roles using many employment styles, including full-time, part-time, telecommuting and contracting.

Robyn has worked in various iterations of the Department of Housing and Public Works for more than 30 years. Robyn was appointed as the first Internal Audit Manager for the department and went on to fill a variety of positions until her appointment to the Assistant Director-General, Corporate Services position, which she has held since 2007.

Paige Ridgewell
Assistant Director-General, Sport and Recreation

BLeisSt, MBA, MPP

Paige has more than 30 years’ experience in the sport and recreation industry as an athlete, coach and administrator. Paige offers extensive experience in managing and directing teams to achieve high level outcomes in strategy, policy and program development.

Since joining the Queensland Government in 1993, Paige has held positions in program development and delivery, infrastructure development, industry development and capacity building, land use planning, research, governance, legislation and policy. During her public service career, Paige has worked across a number of portfolios including main roads, racing, infrastructure and planning, national parks, sport and recreation.

Prior to this role, Paige was the Executive Director in Strategic Policy and Racing Industry Governance, where she led and coordinated whole-of-department policy and positioning across diverse portfolio areas including Native Title, National Parks, Racing and Sport and Recreation.

Andrew Mills
Transition Advisor

BSc, MSc (Electronic Systems)

The Department of Housing and Public Works is undergoing a process to realign whole of government customer and digital functions.  Whilst recruitment for the Chief Customer and Digital Officer is underway, Andrew is Transition Advisor to the Director-General.

Andrew was appointed Queensland Government Chief Information Officer in January 2014. In this role he provided independent advice to Ministers, Directors-General and agencies. Advice focused on management and investment issues for information and communication technology (ICT) enabled initiatives from a whole-of-government perspective to deliver improved services to Queenslanders.

Andrew’s priorities included increasing transparency of ICT projects in government, improving governance processes for investment in ICT, strengthening the Queensland Government’s cyber security preparedness and improving the usage and sharing of data and information to improve services to Queenslanders.

Last updated: 

2 December 2019