The members of our executive have extensive professional experience both in government and private sector, within Australia and overseas. They have specific responsibilities and are bound by a corporate governance framework.
All staff are bound by a code of conduct:
Chief Commissioner of State Revenue
Commissioner of Fines Administration
Acting Deputy Secretary
Cullen Smythe was appointed as Acting Deputy Secretary of Revenue NSW, Acting Chief Commissioner of State Revenue and Acting Commissioner of Fines Administration in March 2020.
Cullen was previously the Executive Director of Technical Advisory Service and the Commissioner of State Revenue since August 2016.
Cullen Smythe joined us from KPMG and has over 20 years’ experience in the professional services arena, over 18 years of which has been spent specialising in State taxes across all Australian jurisdictions.
Cullen’s experience has also covered general revenue, corporate/ commercial and finance law, gained in a number of the ‘Big 4’ and Australian law firms. As well, having lived in Asia for a number of years he has experience in legal and business practices of our regional neighbours and an understanding of the difficulties trying to reconcile often conflicting regulatory demands.
He is a Chartered Tax Advisor and is admitted as a solicitor in New South Wales.
Acting Executive Director, Technical Advisory Services
Commissioner of State Revenue
Ben Hewitt joined Revenue NSW in July 2016, after spending three years in the Central Policy Office of the Department of Finance, Services and Innovation. Before this, he worked in various policy roles in the Cabinet Office and the Department of Premier and Cabinet. He has over 24 years’ experience in government policy and administration.
Ben has degrees in Arts and Law from the University of Sydney.
Executive Director, Customer Service - Taxes & Grants
Kelly Wood was appointed as the Executive Director of Products, Service and Compliance in October 2016.
Kelly comes to Revenue NSW from the world of aviation and defence service provision. Her previous role was the Director of Operations and Strategy for Integrated Defence Services (IDS), an operating segment of Northrop Grumman Australia, which was acquired from Qantas.
Kelly originally joined Qantas in 2009, and was located in the UK to retain strategic industry relationships. Kelly also performed the role of Strategy and Infrastructure Planning Manager for Qantas Regional Airline Group between 2013 and 2014.
Prior to joining Qantas, Kelly had been in the UK since 2001, working for two companies gaining international career experience. Kelly’s career began as an Engineering Officer for the Royal New Zealand Air Force where she gained qualifications and practical experience in Engineering and Management in both New Zealand and Australia.
Kelly is Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and a Director of Civic Disability Services Ltd, a not-for-profit organisation providing employment and care for disabled adults.
Executive Director, Customer Service - Fines & Debt
Kathleen McKay joined Revenue NSW in June 2018. Kathleen has held transformation and operations leadership roles in technology, financial services, and the industrial sector.
She has 20 years experience of which the first decade of her career was in software delivery in Europe and she has led and delivered business transformation initiatives since moving to Australia in 2008.
Kathleen has a Masters degree in Intelligent Systems and completed an extensive Executive Leadership Development program in 2017.
Executive Director, Revenue Digital
Vince DiChiara joined Revenue NSW in July 2016.
Vince has over 30 years’ experience in technology across the financial services and information industries. He has worked in a number of areas, including software development, marketing, service management, advisory and programme management.
Vince came to Revenue NSW from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). He was with the CBA from 2006 to 2015 and led the transformation of the technology capability from 2010 in his role as the Chief Information Officer, Global Markets.
Prior to joining the CBA, Vince was a consultant, specialising in IT advisory, programme management and software development.
Vince's career started as an undergraduate software and hardware engineer at AAP Information Services, and subsequently went on to work in product management and in start-ups.
Vince has a Master of Business Administration (Charles Sturt University) and a Bachelor of Engineering (University of Technology, Sydney). He also completed the Leadership Development Program with the MIT, Sloan School of Management.