Steve Hodgkinson, the chief information officer for the Victorian Department of Health, is leaving after a seven-year stint to join Victoria Police.
On Thursday, Hodgkinson announced on LinkedIn that he will join the force as its new chief digital officer on April 11.
He succeeds previous Victoria Police CDO Bret Giles, who left the country’s second largest police force in late 2021 after five years.
“I’m moving on to become the CDO at Victoria Police after seven years as the CIO in Victoria’s health and human services departments,” Hodgkinson said.
Hodgkinson has extensive public sector expertise, having served as CIO for three iterations of the state’s health and human services portfolio.
After eight years as the worldwide chief analyst for public sector research at analyst firm Ovum, he joined the then Department of Health and Human Services in December 2014.
He became the CIO of the Department of Health last year, following a restructure that culminated in the creation of the Department of Families, Fairness, and Housing.
Despite the changes brought about by consecutive restructures, Hodgkinson told iTnews that overseeing the business technology and management department has been a “great honour.”
Hodgkinson expressed excitement about the prospect of joining Victoria Police, which he described as a “big and complicated frontline service delivery organisation with a strong public purpose.”
“Policing has an exciting digitization agenda ahead of it, and I’m excited to be a part of leading this path,” he said.
“I’ll be in charge of digital innovation and will collaborate with the in-house IT team to build efficient and long-term delivery and support methods for new digital solutions.”
“This will be a fantastic opportunity for me to put all I’ve learned at DHHS to good use in moving platform+agile thinking forward.”
