The Premier and Minister for the Arts Anna Bligh

Director-General
Ken Smith
Department of the Premier and Cabinet

Ken Smith was appointed as Director-General of the Department of the Premier and Cabinet on 14 September 2007. Prior to this appointment, he served as Coordinator-General and Director-General of the Department of Infrastructure, formed on 15 January 2007. From 21 November 2008, Ken was also appointed Chair of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG).

As a senior bureaucrat in Queensland for more than 15 years, Ken has taken a lead role in many of the fundamental reforms that have shaped the State. These have included the roll out of the $9 billion water grid, co-ordination of the south-east Queensland Infrastructure Plan and Program and groundbreaking policy advice in the area of urban development and community renewal. His six-year stint as Director-General of Education and Employment and Training was highlighted by the landmark Education and Training Reforms for the Future which drove the implementation of the Queensland Government's fundamental changes to early, middle and senior phases of schooling. He has also led major organisational change in a range of government departments, statutory authorities and companies.

Ken is a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators and Adjunct Professor of Education at the University of Queensland, Griffith University and University of Sydney and has previously held the position of Adjunct Professor in the School of Social Work and Social Policy at the University of Queensland.

Ken has served as a CEO reporting to a number of Ministerial Councils, as a member of the Prime Minister's Youth Pathways Taskforce, Financial Literacy Foundation, University Councils, and chaired a number of national Companies and Boards in the education, training, community services and housing portfolios.

Our Deputy Director-General
Leigh Tabrett PSM
Deputy Director-General, Arts Queensland.

Leigh Tabrett is a graduate of the University of Queensland, and has undertaken further studies at the University of Melbourne and at the former Brisbane College of Advanced Education.

Leigh has worked as a teacher of German and French, and in university administration at Griffith University. Leigh joined the State Government in 1990 as the first Director of the Office of Higher Education and was employed in that role for more than ten years – a period of significant expansion of the State's higher education facilities.

Leigh has served as an advisor to both State and Commonwealth Governments, particularly in the areas of higher education quality assurance and access and equity issues.

Between 2002 and 2005, Leigh worked as Assistant Director-General (Education) with responsibility for the Department's international programs, where she led the expansion of the Department's promotion and marketing of university and school education overseas.

In March 2005 Leigh was appointed Deputy Director-General of Arts Queensland. Leigh has a long-standing and diverse interest in the arts, and is pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to the success of arts and cultural activities in Queensland.