A strategic thinker, organisational consultant, policy analyst, facilitator and writer, Martin’s work draws on over 35 years’ experience spanning government, the “for purpose” or social sector and the corporate sector. As well as his own advisory and research work, Martin has also been a senior advisor to Deloitte’s public sector team in Australia and with The Impact Assembly as part of PwC’s social impact practice.
He is an ANZSOG Practice Fellow for Digital Government Strategy and Leadership and the founder and principal of Public Purpose Pty Ltd, working at the intersection of public policy, strategy, leadership and technology. He has led the development of new programs exploring the public leadership implications of digital, data and AI, including the role of ethics and ethical frameworks for public leaders. He co-directs ANZSOG’s Deputies Leadership Program with Kathryn Anderson, that integrates a significant focus on the evolution of leadership responses to the opportunities and risks of digital, data and AI capabilities and platforms.
From 2001 to 2013, Martin led the Asia-Pacific public sector consulting and innovation team in Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG). He led strategy and design work on digital transformation and public policy and public sector reform projects in government, education, health, human services and urbanisation in India, China, South-East Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
Prior to his role in Cisco, Martin held various policy and management roles in the federal public sector, including Chief of Staff to a Minister in the Federal Government, a federal public servant (Communications, Sport, Recreation and Tourism) and as a research and strategy lead in the Office of Strategic Planning in the NSW Cabinet Office. For the past three years, and again in 2026, he has been a Learning Guide and facilities for the NSW Leadership Academy (Band 1 and Band 2 senior executives).
He chaired the former NSW Digital Government Advisory Panel and the Expert Advisory Group for the Welfare Payments Infrastructure Transformation program (WPIT) for the former federal Department of Human Services (now Services Australia).
He was a member of the Government 2.0 Task Force established by Federal Minister for Finance, Lindsay Tanner, in 2009. In 2017, Martin was one of 3 members of a review for the NSW Government, chaired by former NSW Premier Nick Greiner AC, of regulatory policy and strategy across the State.
He was an inaugural member of the NSW AI Advisory Group which crafted the early versions of what has now become the NSW AI Assurance Framework which is also being adapted as a national AI assurance framework.
Martin writes and speaks extensively on government, service design, digital transformation, the impact of AI in government and on public leadership for the digital age as well as on different dimensions of policy reform. Together with former Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, he wrote Changing Shape: Institutions for a Digital Age (Longueville Press, February 2014).
He is also co-author with Simon Cooper of (Are We There Yet? Digital Transformation of Government and the Public Sector in Australia (Longueville Press, July 2019).
Martin holds an Honours degree in English from the University of York, a Masters degree in Social Science and Policy from the University of New South Wales as well as graduate qualifications in applied economics from what is now the University of Canberra.