Garry Russell

Department of Corporate and Information Services

In 1979, armed with a Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) degree, and having no interest in moving to the cold, computing hotspots of Sydney, Melbourne or Canberra, I applied for a Computer Systems Officer Grade 1 position with the NT Government. I was offered the role via telegram – a reflection of the technology of the time.

It was all mainframe computing in those days, and the beginning of the 4GL programming tools era. I quickly found my niche in the development and support of business information systems, working on many of the NT Government’s early system development projects.

During the early 1990’s I took a leading role in the evolution of the NTG’s application development processes and procedures.

In the mid 1990’s, computing became more decentralised in government and I spent over 20 years working in Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Project Director roles in a variety of government departments.

This journey has given me a broad appreciation of the business of government that has been invaluable throughout my career and in my current role leading the ‘Across Government Systems’ team at DCDD.

My career has spanned periods of significant change in both the way technology has evolved.