Curriculum Vitae

Sam AzizP: 8786 8454 | M: 0400 046 905 | E: sam.aziz@bigpond.com

Executive ProfileA dynamic leader and manager who has delivered strategic vision and desired operational outcomes in many senior positions and disciplines, across federal, state and local governments.

Experience that is backed by academic qualifications at Masters and Honours levels, as well as various diplomas and executive training.

Skills HighlightsLeadership & ManagementProven leadership and management experience at a senior level, demonstrated capacity to develop and execute strategies and business plans, excellent liaison, communication and representational skills, as well as a very strong capacity to lead and deliver on whole-of-organisation outcomes. Strong sense of social justice. Motivated and action-oriented.

Communication and NegotiationProven capacity to liaise and negotiate at the highest levels. Experience with delivering outcomes at the political and administrative levels domestically and with foreign governments; with the business community and peak industry bodies, and with a multitude of government agencies. Has successfully concluded complex negotiations ranging from government to government memorandums of understanding, to whole of agency staff enterprise agreements.

Political Acumen and Understanding of GovernmentHas high-level leadership experience across three levels of government. In addition to 16 years as an executive with the Commonwealth Government, has served as non-executive Director on the Victorian Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Services Board for three years, and as a Commissioner for Multiculturalism for five years, working directly to the Premier of Victoria. Has also served for a term as Mayor of Victoria’s largest municipality.

Customer, People and Performance FocusListens to customer and organisational needs, then, by working across functions, delivers results that exceed expectations. Highly intuitive people skills enabling the maximisation of individual performance. Has delivered on whole-of-organisation performance measurement and management discipline and encouraged best practice solutions. Very strong on integrity and believes in leading by example. Has retained a high national security clearance for 16 years.

Governance and Financial ManagementHas an excellent and well-developed understanding of best practice governance. Works to accountability and demonstrates at all times transparency and logical reasoning behind decision-making. Delivers to budget consistently and constantly identifies opportunities for efficiency. Focuses on outcomes, not just outputs.

Professional ExperiencePrivate Enterprise

2014 – Current Aziz Group Family Trust

Position: Trustee- Management of family business interests, which include a dental practice and a property development company.

Major Accomplishments:

Successful construction and sale of two developments totalling 7 dwellings, with a market value of over $5 million.

Successful management and growth of a family dental practice, which employees three (3) practitioners and seven (7) support staff. Achieving sales growth of 12% annually for the last two years, and increasing profit growth by 10% annually through targeted clinical specialisation and innovative marketing initiatives.

Commonwealth Government

2011 – 2014 Customs and Border Protection

Position: Director Strategy and Business Modernisation- National role with responsibility for implementing an internationally led (World Customs Organisation) reform program to introduce increased automation into an operational environment, to improve detection results and community protection outcomes.

Major Accomplishments:

Planned the delivery of new national business initiatives to modernise operations and deliver efficiencies. This includes new information technology and new business process re-design. Developed conceptual model and plan of action to achieve introduction and commissioning;

Effectively liaised and negotiated with industry partners and government agencies to develop collaboration on new initiatives and seal agency to agency acceptance and agreements. This included development of intervention agreements as well as a memorandum of understanding which has been fully accepted by three agencies with competing interests; and

Effectively coordinated a national team to deliver quality assurance and policy compliance across an entire operational stream. Compliance improved across 27 separate operational policies and instructions and guidelines- from 53% to 89%.

2006 – 2011 Customs and Border Protection

Position: Director International Mail- National policy and operational role with responsibility for five managers and

over 155 staff. Responsible for policy development as well as operations. Required to deliver effective border intervention and response to threats to the community a result of the movement of International Mail into Australia.

Major Accomplishments:

Management of border intervention against growing volumes of mail, and against a static staffing budget. Mail volumes into Australia have increased by over 380% over 4 years as a result of the strength of the Australian dollar;

Introduction of an intelligence-led program to replace mass screening of International Mail, which has produced significant results. Detection rates increased from 9% to 31%- this means that my teams and processes were successfully re-engineered to looking at less and finding more;

Introduction of administrative penalties to ensure effective treatment of non-compliance. Over $420K of additional revenue collected; and

Oversight of policy development and introduction of various reforms to achieve national consistency. Now all operational facilities across the network in four capital cities work to the same standards and are accountable to uniform outcomes.

2003 – 2006 Customs and Border Protection

Position: Director Investigations- Responsible for agency liaison with the law enforcement community, and the leadership of a team of three managers and 40 investigators to investigate serious offences. Investigations ranged from civil and criminal prosecution, to proceeds of crime action and seizure of criminal assets.

Major Accomplishments:

Leadership of multi-agency field operations at the highest level (Operation Chief), and the coordination of inputs with other agencies, including federal and state police jurisdictions, as well as Commonwealth and State agencies. Effective on-going management of prosecution partners including the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Australian Government Solicitor;

Successful management and conclusion of long and complex prosecutions (46 completed investigations in three years) for breaches of various legislation, and achievement of convictions and other court outcomes;

Delivery of an effective internal computer forensics capability, which significantly enhanced our capacity to locate and present evidence stored in various electronic mediums; and

Personally conducted and successfully concluded sensitive enquiries as requested by Customs senior executives in relation to staff code of conduct and freedom of information matters. Some of these were subject to appeal and my findings were upheld.

1999 – 2003 Customs and Border Protection

Position: Recruited as Manager Exports OperationsPromoted to Director within 2 years

Director Intelligence- Leadership of a team of three managers and 90 staff responsible for the collection and analysis of intelligence to support operational decisions in border protection. Also responsible for sourcing external intelligence from the law enforcement community.

Major Accomplishments:

Planned and executed a successful transition to a new branch, which included the integration of a number of existing and new functions, following a substantial organisational restructure;

Implemented a new operational paradigm, which focussed on a continuum of threats rather than isolated risks. This resulted in significant improvements in major detections, across a range of operational areas;

Due to the international climate at the time (11 September terrorist attacks and 2002 Bali bombing), I also integrated the management of emerging risks, particularly terrorism, into operational target selection and detection protocols; and

Actively managed and enhanced relationships with other partners in the intelligence community, including Victoria Police, Australian Federal Police, ASIO and AUSTRAC, to facilitate the exchange of intelligence on potential border risks.

1998-1999 Attorney-General’s Department

Position: Manager Dignitary Protection and Operations

Major Accomplishments:

Successfully developed information systems and programs to support the implementation of the National Anti-Terrorist Plan. Prior to this operational planning was disparate and I was recruited into this position to create systems and procedures to bring it together;

Actively managed and coordinated national security and law enforcement responses to incidents involving politically motivated violence, including the attack by Kurdish elements on the Greek Consulate-General in Sydney in 1998;

Coordinated the security arrangements for visits to Australia by high level foreign dignitaries, including the Prime Minister of Vietnam and the Israeli Defence Minister, through liaison with foreign embassies and Australian national security agencies; and

Administered and managed various secretariats of security committees across the Commonwealth Government (involving up to 22 agencies), including the Commonwealth Interdepartmental Committee on Threats and Security, the Visits Coordination Group, and the Special Incidents Taskforce.

Department of Defence

1997-1998Position: Adviser International Policy Division

Responsibilities: Coordinated and published within the agency the Defence-wide International Engagement Plan, which provided guidance to the three services (Navy, Army and Air Force) on engagement priorities with foreign defence forces. The successful completion of this document required extensive consultation and negotiation within a very large agency;

Provided briefings and numerous policy advice to the Minister for Defence, the Chief of the Defence Force and senior Defence executives on security-strategic issues in relation to Australia’s international Defence priorities; and

Participated in the management of several Defence international meetings, most importantly the ASEAN Regional Forum, which involved very senior military and civilian personnel, as well as diplomats, from a number of countries in the Asia Pacific region.

State Government

2005 – 2008 Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Services Board

Position: Non-Executive Director of the Board

Major Accomplishments:

I led the design and implementation of a comprehensive performance management process for the Board and the CEO. This was the first time such a process had been developed in the MFB, and it came about as a results of my strong interest in strategic planning and performance management;

Participated (to successful conclusion) as a panel member in the recruitment process to appoint a new CEO for the MFB;

Participated and contributed to very difficult and often hostile negotiations with the United Fire Fighters Union to develop and adopt a staff certified agreement. The agreement was adopted following several months of negotiations; and

Liaised and interacted with the Minister for Police and Emergency Services, and with partner agencies at board level on a range of matters.

2000 - 2005 Victorian Multicultural Commission

Position: Commissioner

Major Accomplishments:

Represented on a number of occasions the interests of Victoria’s multicultural communities to the Premier of Victoria and Ministers;

Provided leadership on a number of issues affecting community harmony, including the contribution of articles for publication;

Led and reported on a broad range of community consultations; and

Promoted and delivered effective distribution of funding to promote community harmony.

Local Government

2008 – Present City of Casey- Victoria’s Largest Municipality- Population 300,000

Position: Councillor/Mayor

Major Accomplishments:

Elected Chair of Planning 2009-2011; Elected Mayor 2011-2012, 2015-2016 and 2016-2017; Inherited a city with massive financial risks ($150 million) due

to the Brookland Greens gas leak. Through working with my colleagues and the CEO, delivered within four years a city that has completely diminished that risk, and has consistently delivered one of the lowest rates in Victoria, despite being the largest city, and despite massive demands on services and infrastructure; and

Introduced several new policies to improve Council operations, including on budget, a new customer service charter, economic development, community strengthening and governance.

Education

2007 Diploma in Company DirectorshipAustralian Institute of Company Directors

2004 Certificate in Fraud ControlAustralian Federal Police College

2002 Advanced Diploma in GovernmentUniversity of Canberra

2000 Advanced Diploma in BusinessUniversity of Canberra

1998 Master of Defence and Strategic StudiesUniversity of New South Wales

1995 Honours Degree in Political Science and Economics

Monash University1993 Bachelor of Arts- Political Science and Economics

Monash University

Executive Development2010 Integrated Leadership Framework

Public Service and Merit Protection Commission

2007 Company Directors CourseAustralian Institute of Company Directors

2005 Command of Operations (OPCHIEF Level)Australian Customs and Border Protection Service

2004 Managing Code of Conduct Investigations Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission

2003 Financial Management for ExecutivesAustralian Institute of Management

2002 Policy Development in the Public SectorAustralian Institute of Public Administration

2000 Customs International Executive Management Program

Australian Customs and Border Protection Service