Craig Thomler is an AI and digital transformation specialist with thirty years of experience across government, consulting, SaaS and startups. He has held roles as Managing Director, COO, CIO, Product Owner and Program Director — building and leading teams, founding consulting businesses, launching commercial platforms, and managing federal programs worth tens of millions of dollars.
He has worked across the UK, North America, Asia and Oceania and is currently based in Canberra, Australia.
Selected outcomes
- Designed a GenAI-supported workflow at Icon Water that cut operational risk assessment drafting time by ~60%, improving consistency during a safety framework transition
- Co-founded reKnow, launched three commercial SaaS generative AI platforms, and helped secure $250,000 in early-stage equity funding
- Co-led a 20-person consulting team at Accenture across multiple client engagements
- Led capability review work at Accenture that identified more than NZ$30M in efficiency opportunities for a large New Zealand client
- Designed the innovation architecture for a $1B national transport project
- Developed Social Media Planner and Sponsorship Planner — workshop tools adopted across more than 20 countries
- Grew Delib Australia’s Asia-Pacific public-sector client base from one organisation to more than 40 across Australia, New Zealand, Asia and the Pacific
- Led the $3M MyRegion whole-of-government platform from standing start to launch in 12 weeks, coordinating more than 12 federal agencies
- Led a team of 15 managing 50+ government websites and all departmental publishing at the Department of Health and Ageing
What Craig offers
Craig helps organisations navigate complex digital and AI transformations — particularly where the challenge is not just technical but also strategic, human, and institutional. Engagements range from short advisory mandates to embedded multi-month delivery.
AI Strategy & Governance
Helping organisations move from AI curiosity to AI capability — with the governance, risk management and adoption frameworks that make it stick. Craig has designed and deployed AI-supported workflows in operational environments, built governance guardrails for client-facing AI platforms, and advised executives on where AI creates genuine leverage and where it creates risk. Typical engagements cover: current-state assessment, opportunity mapping, implementation roadmaps, governance frameworks and change management.
Outcomes delivered: 60% reduction in risk assessment drafting time; three commercial GenAI platforms taken from concept to production.
Fractional AI & Digital Executive
Executive-level AI and digital leadership on a part-time or fixed-term basis — for organisations that need a Chief AI Officer or Chief Digital Officer but aren’t ready to hire one full-time. Craig sets direction, owns the strategy, and bridges the gap between ambition and delivery. Suited to mid-size organisations, regulated industries and growth-stage businesses undergoing digital transition.
Digital Transformation Program Leadership
End-to-end leadership of complex digital programs — from requirements through to cutover and adoption. Craig has led multi-stakeholder platform replacements, large-scale public engagement projects, whole-of-government digital platforms and agency-wide capability uplifts. Effective in environments where the politics are as complex as the technology.
Outcomes delivered: $3M platform launched in 12 weeks across 12 federal agencies; $1M+ in lifetime savings from CMS modernisation; safety permitting platform delivered in a regulated operational environment.
Business Analysis & Systems Design
Translating complex business needs into clear, implementable specifications — requirements, workflows, screen designs, business rules, test scenarios and reporting frameworks. Craig brings particular depth in regulated and operational environments: government, utilities, financial services. Has analysed datasets of up to 3 million records to inform future-state design.
Startup Advisory & Product Strategy
Advisory support for founders and early-stage teams navigating the gap between a working product and a scalable business. Craig has founded and led two consulting businesses, co-founded a SaaS startup, served on startup boards and accelerator panels (EnergyLab, CSIRO ON, InnovationACT, Code for Australia), and taken three commercial platforms from concept to launch.
Outcomes delivered: $250K equity funding secured; public-sector SaaS client base scaled from 1 to 40+ organisations; workshop tools commercialised across 20+ countries.
Organisational Capability & Operating Model Design
Designing how organisations need to work — capability frameworks, operating models, value streams, future-state structures. Craig has led enterprise capability mapping for Accenture, designed uplift roadmaps for government agencies, and built operating model recommendations for major corporates.
Outcomes delivered: NZ$30M in efficiency opportunities identified for SkyCity Auckland; future-state IT capability model developed from business architecture perspective.
Major projects
Plan Melbourne — social media engagement
Led social media engagement for Plan Melbourne, Victoria’s long-term metropolitan planning strategy, on behalf of Delib Australia. Client: Darren Whitelaw, Victorian Department of Planning. One of the largest digital public engagement exercises in Australian planning history. View case study →
City of Melbourne — Budget Simulator
Led Delib Australia’s engagement for the City of Melbourne’s 10-Year Financial Plan — giving residents a live tool to allocate the $400 million annual budget and submit their priorities. Reached thousands of Melburnians and directly informed council deliberations. View case study →
Victorian Government Digital Innovation Review
Led Delib Australia’s delivery of the Victorian Government Digital Innovation Review, commissioned by the Department of Business and Innovation (DBI) and the Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC) — benchmarking digital innovation activity across Victorian Government agencies. eGovAU write-up →
MyRegion — whole-of-government platform
Led the $3M MyRegion whole-of-government platform at the Department of Regional Australia from standing start to launch in 12 weeks, coordinating more than 12 federal agencies, delivery partners and internal stakeholders. Oversaw an open-source map stack presenting cross-agency geospatial data, supporting evidence-based planning.
Crisis management & social media workshops
Designed and facilitated social media crisis management workshops for senior government communications officials across state and federal government, including Victorian Health and Human Services and emergency management agencies. Focused on real-time social media response during critical incidents.
Tools & games
Craig designed and published two card-based professional planning tools, and contributed to the design of PC and tabletop games earlier in his career.
Social Media Planner
A card deck for designing social media strategy around a table — 40 concepts, no technology required. Groups physically sort and arrange cards to design and test approaches, shifting into creative problem-solving that screen-based tools rarely trigger. Used in workshops, conference sessions and training programs across Australia.
Instagram → · YouTube (testimonials & demos) → · Out of print
Sponsorship Planner
A card-based tool applying the same collaborative tabletop methodology to sponsorship strategy — helping rights-holders and sponsors design, evaluate and communicate sponsorship arrangements. Used in workshops with sponsorship professionals across Australia. Out of print.
Government 2.0 and open government
Craig was one of Australia’s leading voices in the Government 2.0 movement. He founded the award-winning eGovAU blog in 2006, which ran for over a decade, was syndicated on five continents, and has been preserved by the National Library of Australia as a significant Australian work. In 2009 he received the inaugural Government 2.0 Individual Innovator Award. In 2010, PoliticsOnline and the World eDemocracy Forum in France named him one of “The Top 10 Who are Changing the World of Internet and Politics.” He was a national award winner at GovHack with the HackWarriors team.
Speaking & chairing
A selection of events where Craig has spoken or chaired, from a career total of over 50 documented presentations:
- GovCMS National Conference, Keynote — “How Generative AI is Transforming Our World” (2023)
- IBR Conferences — “Gen AI Transforming Government”
- Accenture — “Changing How Agencies Change: Embedding Digital Transformation in Organisational DNA” (2017)
- CeBIT Sydney — “Increasing the Size of the Social Media Marketing Pie” (2016)
- CeBIT Digital Marketing Conference — “Building Your Social Media Infrastructure” (2016)
- Plan Melbourne — Urban Technology in Focus — “Community Engagement in Planning: Now and Into the Future” (2014)
- AEMI / Social Media Masterclass — “Setting the Scene: Emergencies in Social Media” (Jul 2014)
- DrupalGov 2014 — “How Open Source is Powering Government”
- Social Business 2014 — “Social Government”
- RAIO — “Becoming Social: Social Media Records Management” (2014)
- Victorian Government Communications Group — “Best Practice in Public Sector Digital Engagement” (Jun 2013)
- RightClick 2013 — “The Latest in Global Digital Government”
- IABC — “Has Government Found Its Feet in Social Media?” (2013)
- Connected Government 2013 — “Social Media Impacts on ICT Teams”
- Reading Room Digital Conversations, Singapore — public engagement through social media (2012)
- UK Government Digital Service — digital government and engagement (Jul 2013)
- NSW Health — “Social Media in Government” (2011)
- Walkleys Public Affairs Conference — “Bringing Gov 2.0 to Life” (2011)
- Kokoda Foundation — “Social Media in Australian Government” (2011)
- Local Government Web Network Annual Conference — “Developing a Social Media Policy” (Aug 2010)
Other events (not a complete list): 2013: Social Media in Government (Victorian Gov), Open Government Progress, Privacy and Social Media for Government, UK GDS visit; 2012: Gov 2.0 in Australia (MAV/WebNetwork); 2011: Demystifying Twitter, Metadata 2.0, Developing Agency Social Media Infrastructure, Ineffective Strategies for Engaging the Public; 2010: Gov 2.0 in a Gov 1.0 World, OIC Presentation, OKFN Iceland; 2009–2008: PublicSphere, BarCamp Canberra Game Design, and others.
Full presentation archive: slideshare.net/CraigThomler (51 presentations) · View presentations page →
Selected media & publications
The Mandarin
Craig has been a regular contributor to The Mandarin — Australia’s leading publication for public sector professionals — on AI, digital transformation and government technology. Selected articles:
- What public servants need to know about GPT-4 (2023)
- Breakthrough or buddy-up: two strategies for chief digital officers (2016)
- #CensusFail ripples will impact every major government IT project (2016)
- Portals, doors and APIs: does DTO’s gov.au fit Australian needs? (2016)
- What can Australia’s first digitally literate PM accomplish? (2015)
- Full archive at The Mandarin →
Books & other publications
Craig has contributed to Social Media Today and has been quoted in national media including the ABC. He wrote for major Australian newspapers including The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald in the late 1990s. Craig co-authored fifteen books, including entries in the Little Net.Guides series published by Bantam under the editorship of Rosanne Bersten.
Recognition
| 2009 | — Inaugural Gov 2.0 Individual Innovator Award, Australian Government’s Government 2.0 Taskforce |
| 2010 | — Top 10 Changing the World of Internet and Politics, PoliticsOnline & World eDemocracy Forum, France |
| — Department of Health and Ageing Australia Day Award — Health Reform Taskforce Communications | |
| — eGovAU blog preserved by the National Library of Australia as a significant Australian work | |
| 2014 | — GovHack national award: team 2nd place for ABS API use |
| 2018 | — Public Service Innovation Award — recognised for designing and facilitating the ASEAN-Australia Codeathon, award won by AUSTRAC |
| — GovHack national awards: Individual Spirit of GovHack ACT award, team won 1st place, 2nd place and an Honourable Mention | |
| 2019 | — 3rd place (Bronze Award) in the Accenture Global Social Services Ideation Challenge |
| — Accenture distinctive conduct recognition for project leadership | |
| — GovHack national award: team 1st place |
The writing connection
Craig’s fiction and professional work are not as separate as they look. The Jack Solano series is set in an attention economy — a near-future extrapolation of the surveillance state Craig has been writing about professionally for twenty years. Signals explores what happens when information systems and reality stop reconciling — not entirely hypothetical if you work in AI. His professional work informs the fiction. The fiction, Craig would argue, is often the clearer analysis.