WOLFENSOHN SCHOLARSHIP UPDATE 2025
Applications for the Harvard Club of Australia's Wolfensohn scholarship will open in early May. 2025. Notification will be sent out to all department heads at this time and it is essential that each candidate must be nominated by a Commonwealth, State or Territory department or agency head.
Last year, three candidates were awarded a scholarship, based on their potential to contribute to the benefit of Australian society through the design and implementation of public policy. They were as follows:
- Kate Boyd PSM, Secretary, The Cabinet Office, NSW
- Laura Christie PSM, NSW Government Chief Information and Digital Officer (GCIDO)
- Tammy Williams, Commissioner, and Chief Executive of the Family Responsibilities Commission (FRC) QLD.
A bio of each is deteailed below.
KATE BOYD PSM
Kate Boyd is the Secretary of The Cabinet Office, which was reinstated on 1 July 2023 to provide the Government with strategic advice on the most complex policy challenges affecting the people of NSW. Kate is a standing advisor to the NSW Cabinet, helping to uphold Cabinet conventions across government and providing stewardship of the Cabinet system. She is also a Board member of Infrastructure NSW.
Kate previously served as Deputy Secretary, General Counsel in the Department of Premier and Cabinet. She advised across a range of areas in the Premier’s portfolio including constitutional and electoral law, parliamentary matters, integrity and accountability, privacy and access to government information. Kate led the legal and governance functions and was the Department’s Chief Risk Officer. She was named as a finalist in the category of Public Servant of the Year in the 2020 NSW Premier’s Awards, and received the Public Service Medal in the 2022 Australia Day Honours in recognition of her work on the legal response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
LAURA CHRISTIE PSM
Laura is an experienced public sector leader having spent 15 years in roles in the NSW Government, Commonwealth Government and the not-for-profit sector. In her role as the NSW Government Chief Information and Digital Officer (GCIDO) she leads Digital NSW, which provides digital strategy, policy, investment advice and delivers digital services for the NSW public sector. Prior to this, Laura led Service Delivery for Service NSW, where she was responsible for the Service NSW shopfronts and Contact Centre (13 77 88). Her expertise and achievements were acknowledged in 2018 as the recipient of a NSW Public Service Medal for outstanding public service to policy development and reform initiatives.
TAMMY WILLIAMS
Tammy Williams is the Commissioner, and Chief Executive of the Family Responsibilities Commission (FRC), a Queensland public sector entity which operates in five remote First Nations (Aboriginal) communities in Far North Queensland.
She was awarded a law degree from the Queensland University of Technology in 2001, after which she was admitted as a Barrister to the Supreme Court of Queensland and the High Court of Australia. Commissioner Williams is a highly experienced professional who has worked successfully within the community sector and government, having previously acted as the Director-General, and held the substantive role as Deputy Director-General for the Department of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Queensland State Government. In 2011 as part of the International Women’s Day Centenary celebrations, she was listed in the Power of 100: Named in list of one hundred women who have shaped Australia.
By funding executive education at the world’s leading school of public policy, the Wolfensohn Scholarship supports the design and delivery of good public policy in Australia. It also rewards outstanding individuals for their achievements in Government and motivates recipients in their successful public sector careers.
Further information:
Mat Franklin
Chair, Wolfensohn Scholarship
mat.franklin@fujitsu.com
0400 868 766