I am delighted to announce the Australian Government’s ICT Young Professional of the Year Award for 2012.

The Australian Government is a major employer of ICT professionals with a number of programs to encourage talented young people into the industry. Through the ICT Young Professional of the Year Award we continue to see committed young ICT professionals who are playing a significant role in developing and driving innovative practices.

We acknowledge the exceptional quality of nominees for this year’s Awards and recognise the outstanding contribution they are making in the ICT arena. This quality of talent has been demonstrated by our four finalists: Luke Blunden, Wollondilly Shire Council, New South Wales; Christopher Giffard, Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Canberra; Lachlan McFarlane, Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Canberra; and Mike Webb, Department of Industry Innovation Science Research and Tertiary Education, Canberra.

My congratulations go to this year’s winner: Christopher Giffard from the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Canberra.

• Christopher was selected as this year’s Award winner for his significant contribution to the development of accessible video for the Australian Government. Christopher seized an opportunity to deliver a more robust, forward thinking, future-proof solution to the immediate requirements to display accessible video content with captions.

I would also like to commend the work of our other three finalists:

• Luke Blunden from Wollondilly Shire Council has been the technical lead in pulling together all the information technology requirements for an Outreach Youth Trailer which takes youth services to the young people who need it across Wollondilly Shire.
• Lachlan McFarlane, Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, established and led a successful agile software development team that was used to rapidly build products required by the department.
• Mike Webb, Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education, has been a leader in the successful design and implementation of the ICT infrastructure that supports the Department’s delivery of whole-of-government online services.

The finalists have all demonstrated outstanding professionalism, innovative thinking and commitment to the ICT industry.

Through the Australian Government’s ICT Awards program we continue to recognise the work being done in our agencies by our ICT professionals. If you would like to know more about nominating for next year’s Awards there is information on the Finance website at http://www.finance.gov.au/e-government/awards/index.html.