INTHEBLACK November 2021 - Magazine - Page 21
AT A G L A N C E
Toni Moate FCPA began
her career with CSIRO in
1991 and is now director
of national collections
and marine infrastructure.
Moate takes a keen
interest in scrutinising
processes and embracing
new technologies that
can improve how those
processes are run.
Moate is also passionate
about amplifying the
role people play within
processes and
encouraging strong
stakeholder relationships.
T O N I M O AT E F C PA H AS B E E N A P P L A U D E D F O R H E R
P O W E R F U L TA L E N T I N P E O P L E A N D P R O J E C T
MANAGEMENT – INCLUDING LEADING THE DESIGN
A N D B U I L D O F A A$1 20 M I L L I O N R E S E A R C H S H I P.
PEOPLE
PERSON
T
STORY CHRIS SHEEDY
PHOTOS MATTHEW SCOTT
oni Moate FCPA, CSIRO’s director of
national collections and marine infrastructure,
had a humble start to her public service career.
After leaving school in Year 10, Moate got
a job as a clerk with the Tasmanian Department of
Education. One of her tasks was coordinating the
annual supply process for all the public schools across
Tasmania. This involved keeping records and filling
ledgers on paper, slowly and laboriously.
“It was a lengthy process to make sure the individual
subject requests met the school’s budget,” says Moate.
“When I was asked to manage that as a relatively
junior person, I could immediately see a better way.
“The process of adding everything up was massive.
I suggested that we might use this new thing called
‘Excel’. It would add everything up for us, rather than
us having to transcribe figures into old ledger books.
Many were against such new ideas and, in the end,
I was only allowed to use Excel if I could find a way
to print the tables out and glue them into the ledger
books!”
intheblack.com November 2021 21