Dr Gillian Sparkes AM
Dr Gillian Sparkes AM has held the independent statutory role of Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability for Victoria since July 2014, having previously held senior roles with the Victorian Government including Chair of the Board of Sustainability Victoria, Deputy Secretary Corporate and Business Services for the Department of Sustainability and Environment and two terms as a Director of South Gippsland Water and Chair of the Board Environment Committee. As Commissioner, Dr Sparkes’ prepares independent advice and scientific reports on the condition of Victoria’s environment, many of which include recommendations to the Victorian Government.
Dr Sparkes is a non-executive director with current roles including Chair of Frontier SI (formerly the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information) and board member of the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation, Industry Capability Network (Victoria), and a Commissioner of the Victorian Building Authority Board. She is a member of multiple advisory bodies including the Monash Sustainable Development Institute Advisory Council and the National 2030 Space and Spatial Industry Growth Roadmap Steering Committee.
Dr Sparkes has three decades’ experience working across technical, operations management and commercial roles in the manufacturing, industrial services, waste management and water industries, at the interface of industry, environment and community. She worked in the private sector with BHP Steel (now BlueScope Steel) and Brambles, before becoming a senior public servant. This experience has enabled her to be an effective collaborator who has forged strong and productive partnerships between government, business, community and environmental stakeholders.
Since taking on the Commissioner role, Dr Sparkes has led the transformation of environmental reporting in Victoria – applying collaborative, co-design methods, systems analysis, international frameworks (the UN SDGs and UN SEEA) as well as advancing the use of citizen science, earth observation and spatial analysis, to improve environmental outcomes. Victoria now has more independent reporting on the health of the environment by the Commissioner with eight new statutory functions since 2015, for the first time since the role was established in 2003. Thirty of 31 recommendations from the Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability 2018 reports were accepted (in full, part or principle) by the Victorian Government.
Dr Sparkes trained initially as an industrial chemist with BHP Steel Western Port and undertook a PhD, Applied Science (Surface and Colloid Chemistry in minerals processing). She has a Master of Business Administration (Executive Operations), is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a National and Victorian Fellow of the Institute for Public Administration Australia, a Trustee of the Royal Society of Victoria and member of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute. She also has qualifications in wisdom and ethics in leadership and decision-making from Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership. Dr Sparkes was recognised as one of Victoria’s Top 50 Public Sector Women (2020) and was appointed as a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia (General Division) in the Queen’s Birthday 2021 Honours “for significant services to environmental sustainability, and to public administration”.