Sharon Deano has occupied various leadership positions in the Australian Public Service over the last 19 years.  She joined the Victorian Public Service in 2024 as a senior executive and is currently the Director of Compliance & Enforcement, Energy Division at the Essential Services Commission. Prior to this she spent 18 years at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, undertaking various leadership roles in  a variety of areas including in enforcement, mergers, exemptions and data and intelligence. She has led several high-profile investigations which have resulted in ground-breaking precedent and multi-million dollar court ordered civil penalties. Her past experience also includes contributing to several international projects designed to fast-track skills acquisition for newly formed competition regulators in the ASEAN region. She has provided capacity building training to competition regulators in the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia.  She has also spoken at multi-lateral conferences with ASEAN member states on the topics of leadership, investigations and data driven decision making. In her current role, she advises the commission on setting the strategic direction of the compliance and enforcement functions, including establishing annual compliance and enforcement priorities. She also leads the strategic direction of enforcement investigations and litigated matters.