Our Executive team

Meet the members of our Executive team.

Secretary, David Fredericks PSM

David Fredericks was appointed Secretary of the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources with effect from 1 February 2020.

David previously served as Secretary of the Department of the Environment and Energy from early November 2019. Over a four year period, David was previously Deputy Secretary at the Department of Finance, with responsibility for Budget and Financial Reporting and, prior to this, Deputy Secretary of Business Enabling Services.

David was also Deputy Secretary in the Attorney-General’s Department for more than four years, as Chief Operating Officer and, previously, as Deputy Secretary, Civil Justice and Legal Services.

David has held senior ministerial adviser roles at both the Commonwealth and state level. He previously served as Director of the Economic Reform Unit in the Solomon Islands Ministry of Finance, on secondment from the Australian Treasury, and was Executive Director of the Policy Division in the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet.

He practiced as a barrister in Sydney for five years.

David has degrees in Law (with First Class Honours) and Economics from Sydney University. He was awarded the Public Service Medal in the 2020 Australia Day Honours for services to the Budget and to reform in the Attorney-General’s portfolio. 

Deputy Secretary, Jo Evans

Jo Evans commenced as the Deputy Secretary responsible for the Climate Change and Energy Innovation Group in February 2020. Jo leads the rollout of the government’s climate change policy and supports energy innovation including hydrogen, offshore wind and electric vehicles. Jo also has responsibility of National Measurement Institute, and the Northern Australia and Major Projects divisions.

She is responsible for the portfolio’s climate change agencies: the Clean Energy Regulator, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the Climate Change Authority and the Wind Farm Commissioner.

In 2009-10 Jo was a member of the advisory board that developed the report Ahead of the Game: blueprint for reform of Australian Government administration.

Prior to joining the APS in 2000, she worked for management consultants McKinsey & Company.

Jo has a Masters of Public Policy from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, a Masters in Environmental Science from the University of Melbourne and a combined bachelor degree in Asian studies and economics (honours) from the Australian National University.

Deputy Secretary, Elizabeth Kelly 

Elizabeth Kelly commenced as Deputy Secretary at the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science in October 2017, where she is responsible for innovation, digital strategy and industry support programmes, as well as Questacon and Small and Family Business divisions.

Prior to this, Elizabeth was Deputy Secretary, Governance at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet where she was responsible for machinery of government, Cabinet, legal policy and governance issues across the public service and coordination of support to the Prime Minister..

Elizabeth has previously served in two Deputy Secretary roles with the Attorney-General’s Department, firstly responsible for Civil Justice and Legal Services and then Strategic Policy and Coordination and ministerial support.

Before returning to the Australian Public Service in 2006, Elizabeth was the Director of Policy and Regulatory Services in the ACT Department of Justice and Community Safety, responsible for legal policy advice to the ACT Government. She also served as the Director of Policy for the Northern Territory Attorney-General’s Department from 1996 to 2001, and was a Crown Prosecutor in the Serious Fraud Office, Fiji Director of Public Prosecutions in 1998.

Elizabeth was admitted as a legal practitioner by the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 1989, practising as a solicitor at Blake Dawson Waldron in 1989 and 1990, for the New South Wales Royal Commission into Productivity in the Building Industry from 1990 to 1992 and for the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions from 1992 to 1996.

Elizabeth completed the Advanced Management program at the Harvard Business School in 2012. 

Deputy Secretary, Luise McCulloch

Luise McCulloch commenced with the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources in September 2020. Luise is responsible for the Strategic Policy, Analysis & Insights and Anti-dumping Commission divisions, as well as the Department’s Corporate and Digital functions.

Prior to joining the department, Luise was a Deputy Australian Statistician with the Australian Bureau of Statistics, where she led the Statistical Services Group responsible for producing demographic, economic, environmental and social statistics. Luise has also played a significant role in the transformation journey of the ABS across reform in culture, systems, governance and relationship with Government and stakeholders. This included managing a significant change agenda across the organisation.

Luise also worked for extensive periods in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Treasury where she held a variety of positions including division head of Budget Policy, Industry, Environment and Defence, and corporate and International Tax. This included working closely with ministers and their staff on a range of complex policy packages such as Commonwealth-State reform, climate change packages over successive governments, setting the strategic directions for fiscal policy, and regional/sectoral industry policy reform.

Luise has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours, Economics) from the University of New England. She has two adult children, and spent her childhood in rural NSW where she was a member of a large farming family.

Deputy Secretary, Sean Sullivan

Sean Sullivan commenced as the Deputy Secretary of the Energy Group in February 2020. The Energy Group supports the reliable, affordable, sustainable and secure operations of Australia’s energy markets, and is comprised of the Energy Division and the Energy Security and Efficiency Division. Sean is also responsible for the Department’s resources function.

Sean has been in the Australian Government environment portfolio for over 20 years. Prior to this, he worked in the Department of Primary Industries and Energy. During his time in the Environment portfolio he worked on a variety of natural resource management issues including the regional forest agreement process, the establishment of the Australian Greenhouse office, the implementation of Australia’s Oceans Policy, development of Australia’s Population Policy and coordinating the Environment portfolio budget.

In addition to his domestic responsibilities, Sean has worked on a number of international issues including the Commission on Sustainable Development, international oceans policy, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and more recently the International Energy Agency.

Before joining the Australian Public Service, Sean spent ten years at the Australian National University in undergraduate, postgraduate and research positions in science, ecology and environmental law.

Deputy Secretary, David Williamson

David Williamson commenced with the department in August 2019. He is responsible for science and commercialisation policy, and Industry Growth. David also has oversight of the Department's COVID-19 Taskforces.

David commenced in the Australian Public Service as a graduate in 2000 and joined the Senior Executive Service in 2004.

He recently led the team in the Prime Minister’s department supporting the Independent Review of the Australian Public Service. Prior to this he was a Deputy Secretary in the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, where his group included agricultural policy, farm support and sustainable agriculture, fisheries and forestry divisions.

From 2013 to 2016 David worked in the Prime Minister’s department, leading firstly the taskforce that prepared the Australian Government’s White Paper on Developing Northern Australia, then the Industry, Infrastructure and Environment Division.

David was Executive Director of the Policy and Research Division in the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development from 2010 to 2013. His division included the department’s strategic policy team and the research Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics.

From 2004 to 2010 he held a number of senior executive positions in the Agriculture portfolio, including with responsibility for industry structural adjustment, trade and market access, and rural and regional policy and innovation. He has also had leadership roles supporting a number of other government-commissioned inquiries and as Government Director on a rural research and development corporation.

David grew up in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, and has a Bachelor of Arts (Combined Honours) from the University of Melbourne.

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Our organisational chart shows the internal structure of our department, our senior executives as well as the other agencies that form our portfolio.