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:
- understand expected standards of conduct and behaviour
- maintain our integrity and reputation
- comply with relevant laws and policies
- decide how to deal with ethical problems.
Our executive
Scott Johnston
Chief Commissioner of State Revenue
Commissioner of Fines Administration
Deputy Secretary
Scott was appointed as the Deputy Secretary, Revenue NSW, Chief Commissioner of State Revenue and Commissioner of Fines Administration in April 2020.
Scott is a highly experienced senior leader with a career spanning the Australian and United Kingdom public sectors. Prior to joining Revenue NSW, Scott was Acting Commissioner at the NSW Public Service Commission, leading the NSW Government’s agenda around diversity, work of the future and reform across the sector. He joined the Public Service Commission in June 2014 and held the roles of Director Workforce Information Branch and Assistant Commissioner of the Performance and Analytics Division.
An internationally recognised statistician specialising in economic analysis, his work at the UK Office of National Statistics guided key decision making for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and European Union. In Director roles at the Australian Bureau of Statistics he developed and led significant change initiatives including a variety of complex people management programs and the launch of the major economic surveys onto digital platforms.
Scott is passionate about shaping future workforce strategy through evidence-based decision making, driving innovation, inclusion and building digital capability.
Cullen Smythe
Executive Director, Technical Advisory Services
Commissioner of State Revenue
Cullen Smythe was appointed as the Executive Director of Technical Advisory Service and the Commissioner of State Revenue in 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 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 member of the Tax Institute – Office of State Revenue Liaison Committee, and a Chartered Tax Advisor and a regular attendee at the TIA State Taxes Conference.
Sandra Rothwell
Acting Executive Director
Customer Service – Taxes and Grants
Sandra has extensive experience working at Revenue NSW and is currently the Acting Executive Director for Taxes & Grants.
In this role she leads the Business Taxes, Land Tax, Duties & Grants and Tax Debt teams raising over $40 billion of revenue a year for the state of NSW and distributing vital grants to support our community.
David Ranasinghe
Executive Director
Customer Service - Fines & Debt
David joined Revenue NSW in February 2022 as Chief Digital Officer driving technology change through Revenue NSW’s software development and business process transformation program. David is passionate about delivering innovative and supportive outcomes for customers.
When the opportunity arose in early 2024 to lead the Fines and Debt team David was eager to utilise his strengths in driving innovative solutions for our customers. David was appointed Executive Director of fines and debt in April 2024.
David previously worked in the health care sector as Chief Technology Officer for Healius Limited and prior to that at the Commonwealth Bank where he held several divisional Chief Information Officer roles with responsibility for payments, online business banking, merchant acquiring and commercial lending.
Karen Ko
Acting Chief Digital Officer
Revenue Digital
Karen Ko joined Revenue NSW in 2022 as Director Digital Services Fines and Debt and has been acting Chief Digital Officer since February 2024.
Karen has over twenty years’ experience delivering strategic programs, implementing technology and digital product transformation initiatives across both private and public sector. Karen is passionate about building a customer centric culture, maximising the agility of teams, and taking a product lens and mindset. She thrives on motivating teams to achieve outcomes and developing team capabilities to their full potential.
Jocelyn Yem
Director
Strategy and Innovation
Jocelyn Yem is currently Revenue NSW’s Strategy Director. Jocelyn leads a team delivering innovative customer insights, business process excellence, commercial management and intelligent automation in addition to helping shape the strategic roadmap for Revenue NSW.
Jocelyn joined Revenue NSW in late 2018 as the Land Tax Director, and has spent over 20 years in operational, policy and project roles in the NSW public sector.
Passionate about collaboration as well as diversity and inclusion, Jocelyn is an active contributor for a range of staff and customer initiatives.