Aaron Hooper

Executive summary

Aaron is a Director with BDO in Canberra. He is passionate about helping projects and programs succeed, with over 20 years of experience providing professional services to the government and private sector.

He has a wealth of experience in delivering project and program assurance and ICT assurance, including pre- and post-system reviews, IT environment/security reviews, and risk management.

Expertise

• Government and public sector
• Federal Government
• Portfolio, program and project assurance
• PMO establishment and project delivery
• IT governance including design
• Maturity assessments
• Information systems audit and control
• Risk management
• Business continuity and resilience
• ERP integrity and control

Experience

Program and project assurance

• Aaron has led independent assurance services, including working closely with senior leadership and the Board to ensure a fit-for-purpose assurance approach targeted at key areas of program risk to help support key decisions.
• Led the team providing the independent assurance provider role for the Child Care Subsidy Reform implementation. This involved the delivery of over 14 reviews focused on program health and management, build progress, change management, stakeholder engagement, risk management, gateway readiness and go-live readiness.

Strategic reviews

• Aaron led an independent high-profile review (published publicly) of the Australian Apprenticeship Management System. This review led to significant governance changes including the establishment of a Portfolio Project Office.
• Led an achievability review over the Childcare Subsidy reform implementation. This review considered whether the program was set up for success in the areas of governance (effective oversight), achievability of the program schedule and the extent to which business, technology and change readiness activities had been considered.
• Led an independent review (current state assessment) over a key Defence project that was modernising key communications technologies. This review considered technology direction alignment to strategy, contract management practice effectiveness with key vendors and identification of key risk areas that may impact the project.

Cyber security and IT control

• Aaron has performed a large range of ICT security-related engagements utilising the Australian Government’s Protective Security Policy framework, including the Information Security Manual. Engagements have included compliance reviews, threat risk assessments, development of System Security Plans, application, environment and physical security reviews.

Internal audit services including IT audit

• Aaron has led many internal audit engagements across a range of federal government departments. Activities have included audit planning through reporting and presenting outcomes to Audit and Risk Committees.

Qualifications and affiliations

• Bachelor of Information Technology
• Certified Information Systems Auditor (2004 – current)
• Practitioner certifications:
  • P3O
  • Managing Successful Programmes (MSP)
• Foundation certifications:
  • SAFe Scaled Agile
  • PRINCE2
  • ITIL v3
  • OGC Gateway Review Team Member
• Australian Government Security Clearance
• Australian Public Service Office Traineeship