Paul Ronalds is currently First Assistant Secretary responsible for the Office of Work and Family in the Department of Prime Minister & Cabinet.
Prior to this, Paul worked for World Vision Australia for six years, initially as Director of Policy and Programs and more recently as Deputy CEO and Director of Strategy.
Paul has also worked as a corporate lawyer with law firm Freehills, he was co-founder of wishlist.com.au, one of Australia’s most successful e-commerce companies and chief operating officer of Urban Seed, an innovative and dynamic NGO that provides a range of services to marginalised people in Melbourne’s inner city.
Paul is a graduate of the St James Ethics Centre’s Vincent Fairfax Fellowship in Ethics and Leadership and has degrees in economics and law with honours from Monash University, a graduate diploma in applied finance and a masters in international relations from Deakin University.
He is the author of The Change Imperative: Creating a Next Generation NGO, a book that examines the organisational challenges faced by international NGOs in a rapidly evolving global political context.

Presentation Overview:

There is a paradox at the heart of modern social policy making. The problems that we confront are increasingly complex and require genuine collaboration and partnerships across governments, business, NGOs and the community more broadly, especially in service delivery. On the other hand, bureaucrats are increasingly concerned that devolving power may leave them accountable for expenditure and other actions that they cannot control. The Ahead of the Game Report and the service delivery reforms currently being implemented seek to address this paradox. Some trials of the thinking behind this work are also showing early promise of the way forward.