A NSW Government website
Communities of Practice

Finance Professionals

The NSW Public Sector Community of Finance Professionals (CoFP) maintains an active community of finance professionals encompassing all organisations in the public sector.  The CoFP commenced for NSW Government finance professionals in 2008, was extended to NSW Local Government and Federal Government located in NSW in 2019, and the Tertiary sector in 2022.

There are benefits to individual members, agencies and the sector as a whole through promoting the sector as a place to build a professional finance career. This is achieved by facilitating the sharing of best practice, providing a strategic forum for building networks and sharing access to information and resources, senior public sector staff, and job opportunities. 

Our mission

Our Mission is to generate and maintain an active community of finance professionals encompassing all organisations in the NSW public sector that will foster and promote the sector as a place to work and build a professional career. 

Our vision

Our Vision is to be recognised and valued as an integral element of accounting and financial management improvement in the public sector.

Our value proposition

The Community of Finance Professionals will operate as a collective of practitioners and interested parties to serve as a networking and self-help group, and to share information and experiences in dealing with the challenges of financial management improvement.

Advisory Board

Office holders:

Department/Cluster Position Name
Department of Education Chair John Jeffery
Department of Creative Industries, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport  Secretary  Gary Driscoll

 

Other members:
 

Agency Name
Audit Office of New South Wales David Daniels
Australian Broadcasting Corporation  Natalie Moore
Department of Communities and Justice Amy Wang
Department of Communities and Justice Nadia Theore 
Department of Customer Service Natalie Ahamed
Department of Education Ross Hawkey
Department of Parliamentary Services  Tamara Leizer 
Department of Planning and Environment  Mervyn Yuen 
Macquarie University  Ben Gray
Ministry of Health Wendy Fung
Ministry of Health Paul Coghlan
Premier’s Department  Anita Young 
Transport for NSW  Clement Siu 
Transport for NSW  Sophia Reyes 
University of NSW  Libby Stratford 

 

Associate members:

Organisation

Name
Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand Renee Feltrin 
Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand Alana Lee Wright 
CPA Australia Liam Cleary 
CPA Australia Rupen Malouf 

We welcome Expressions of Interest to the board from any member of the Community

Register your expression of interest to join the board

Joining our community

Membership

Membership is available to any person actively engaged in NSW public sector finance and accounting. This includes those working within NSW state government, NSW local government and federal government agencies located within NSW, as well as the tertiary sector located in NSW.

Governance

Our Community was created to better promote the New South Wales public sector as an employer of choice for finance professionals, and to retain those people in the sector.  Our advisory panel supports the Community to meet this goal.

The Community provides channels for communication, information-sharing and problem solving. It does this via the voluntary CoFP Board running activities and events, operating this website, including emails, and social media communication.

Join the Finance ComPrac

Use this form to join

Our events

The CoFP run five free member events each year. These events are all held online, and where available, hybrid with in-person capacity. Venues are spread across the Sydney CBD, Western Sydney and regionally. We also run several Beans for Bean Counters local discussion groups. Events are recognised for CPD (continuing professional development) by our sponsors (CPA Australia and CAANZ).  

Upcoming events are notified to our members via email.

Our event slides are placed on our LinkedIn page at the conclusion of each event (where speakers endorse).

Recent events:

Feb 2024 – Reignite your Finance Career to Enjoy Greater Success

Speakers

Mark Hodgson – Executive Coach

Liam Cleary – CPA Australia

David Jukes - CAANZ

Watch the event recording

Nov 2023 – The Year in Review

Speakers

Margaret Crawford –NSWAO

Liz Livingstone – NSW Treasury

Ross Dunkley – UNSW

Watch the event recording

Sept 2023 - Cyber Risk in the Digital Age

Speakers

Jess Thomas – Assistant Director, Department of Home Affairs

Stephen Darragh – Director, NSW Department of Education

Gillian Wood – Director, Transport for NSW

Ross Hawkey – Chair, COFP

Watch the event recording

Sept 2022 - Regional Event – Purposeful Partnerships

Speakers

Judith Whelan, ABC

Melanie Hawyes, Crown Lands

Lisa Anderson, TfNSW

Watch the event recording

Contact us

To contact us, please email finance@comprac.nsw.gov.au