Ben Kite
BA(Politics), MA(International), Grad Cert(Social Impact), MBus (Wine), WSET Level 3 in Wine
Principal, Fine Grained Consulting
A critical and strategic thinker, Ben has 18 years' experience in public policy roles, with expertise in major projects implementation, policy analysis and regulation in significant multi-year, multi-agency projects. He is a great communicator with an ability to translate complex issues into succinct, actionable information for senior decision-makers.
Most recently, he was responsible for leading development of an Industry Plan covering social services, education, health, and justice, and focused on ensuring all these workforces have the capability to assist clients/patients/students who may be experiencing family violence. This was an 18-month project which involved leading a team of eight to design and draft the Plan, developing and overseeing the project management approach, developing the policy ideas and budget, and liaison and briefing of senior government officials on progress and final approval.
Recently, he worked directly with the Chief Executive Officer of the SA Department of Education (Office of Early Childhood Development) to lead development of a workforce strategy for the early childhood education sector in support of the SA Government's rollout of 3-year-old preschool. This included briefing Chief Executives of other government departments as well as leadership of a small team to design and draft the Strategy for public release and develop and secure approval for a $50m program budget.
He also led a team of eight policy officers to drive implementation of the Family Violence Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Management Framework (MARAM), one of the Victorian Government's major family violence reform initiatives in response to the 2015-16 Royal Commission into Family Violence. His team supported Family Safety Victoria's role leading whole-of-government strategy on this reform, coordinated partner departments across government, including running a whole-of-government working group and steering committee, and managed the relationship with key stakeholders in the community services sector.
He is experienced in:
Running working groups and steering committees involving multiple government agencies and non-government groups
Brokering cross-agency agreements on contentious policy issues
Managing consultations on behalf of government with external stakeholders
Contract management of external providers.
Ben has a Bachelor of Arts, a Master of Arts (International Studies), and a Graduate Certificate in Social Impact.