Queensland’s Residential Tenancies Authority (RTA) is in search of a new Chief Digital Officer (CDO) after the departure of Greg Watts, who joined the Public Trustee of Queensland as CIO earlier this year. Jelena Nikolic, the RTA’s digital solutions director, has taken on the role of acting CDO while the authority seeks a permanent replacement. The new CDO will report to the RTA’s CEO and lead its digital transformation program, focusing on migrating legacy platforms to Dynamics 365, enhancing user experience, efficiency, automation, data insights, and customer experience.
The RTA, headquartered in Brisbane, has made substantial investments in digital capabilities to streamline services related to bond management and dispute resolution for landlords, renters, and real estate agents. In late 2021, the RTA introduced its “Bulk Bond Lodgement” feature as part of its Web Services suite, enabling users to lodge multiple bonds and bond increases in a single online transaction. In the 2021-22 financial year, the RTA experienced a 5% increase in the adoption of its digital services, with 70.2% of all tenancy and bond forms being lodged digitally.
Greg Watts served as the RTA’s CDO since 2021 and previously held senior IT positions in various Queensland government agencies, including the Queensland Department of Employment, Small Business and Training, the Queensland Government Chief Information Office, the Public Safety Business Agency, and the Queensland Police Service.
