Executive profiles
Reece Waldock
Chief Executive Officer
Reece has 25 years experience in strategic management with particular expertise in organisational reform. He held a number of senior executive roles within the Department of Commerce and Trade and Department of Transport from the early 1990s through to the end of 2000. Prior to his career with the WA public sector, Reece held a number of senior management roles with BHP.
In December 2000, following the sale of the rail freight business of the Western Australian Government Railways Commission, Reece acted in the position of Commissioner of Railways. With the creation of the PTA on July 1, 2003 Reece was appointed as the inaugural CEO and oversaw the integration of all state-wide public transport services, together with a major construction program which included the Mandurah Railway.
In May 2010 the State Government integrated WA’s three key transport agencies and Reece was appointed to head the Transport portfolio, consisting of the Department of Transport, Main Roads WA and the PTA. This has heralded a new direction for the portfolio of single point accountability, a whole of portfolio approach and ensuring we get the transport system right.
Mark Burgess
Managing Director
Mark has gained extensive logistic, transport and people management skills through an extensive career in the Army and subsequently in senior public transport appointments in WA. He has Graduate and Post Graduate qualifications in the areas of Transport Planning, Policy, Economics and Management, and is a Graduate of Royal Military College Duntroon, and the Army Command and Staff College.
He served in the Army for 21 years before leaving to join Transperth, which was then within the Department of Transport, subsequently within Department for Planning and Infrastructure and with the Public Transport Authority since its inception in 2003. He assumed the position of Managing Director PTA in May 2010, having been the Executive Director of the Transperth System for the 11 years prior to that and also being responsible at Executive Director level for Regional and School Bus Services since 2002.
Pat Italiano
General Manager, Transperth Train Operations
Pat is a qualified accountant and member of CPA Australia. During his 38-year career in public transport, Pat has acquired considerable expertise in business and strategic management, risk management, audit and, more recently, operational experience within a fully-integrated urban passenger transit environment.
Pat is responsible for promoting and managing the delivery of urban passenger rail services to the highest of customer service standards and is committed to ensuring the successful integration and delivery of all urban passenger rail services. He was appointed to the Executive in June 2004.
Kim Stone
Acting General Manager, Network and Infrastructure
Kim joined the PTA in August 2004 after two years’ secondment from the Department for Planning and Infrastructure as director of school bus reform. He had previously been director of Coastal and Facilities Management in the Department of Transport for four years. Kim has worked in both the State and Federal Government arenas in addition to a number of roles in the private sector, including running his own management consulting business. His background is in engineering and management.
As General Manager of N&I, Kim’s responsibilities include the management and maintenance of the PTA railway network infrastructure, including controlling access by third parties under the Railways (Access) Act 1998 and ensuring the provision of Information Technology services to support PTA’s operations.
Peter Jones
Acting Executive Director Transperth System, Regional and School Bus Services
Peter has more than 33 years’ experience in the public service across a number of government agencies. He joined the PTA at its formation after five years with the Department of Transport and the Department for Planning and Infrastructure. He holds a Bachelor of Business (Accounting) degree and is a member of CPA Australia. He has been awarded CPA and CIA post graduate qualifications and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport Association.
In this role, Peter is responsible for managing, coordinating and marketing the Transperth system, comprising commercial bus contractors, a commercial ferry contractor and the urban passenger rail services. His role is also responsible for the management of Regional Town Bus Services and School Bus Services throughout Western Australia.
Martin White
Acting General Manager, Transwa
Martin joined the PTA in 2006. He was formerly General Manager of the Eastern Goldfields Transport Board (trading as TransGoldfields). Martin has 20 years’ experience in public transport, having previously worked in both the Department of Transport and the Department for Planning and Infrastructure. He is a qualified accountant and has a post-graduate qualification in management.
Martin is responsible for managing Transwa, the PTA’s regional rail and road coach network (including TransGoldfields - Kalgoorlie’s public bus service) as well as implementing the strategic elements of PTA’s corporate plan which apply to Transwa. He is also responsible for the delivery of key performance indicators in the areas of customer service, maintenance and revenue building within Transwa.
Kevin Kirk
Acting Executive Director, Finance and Contracts
Kevin has more than 35 years’ experience in public service and has held senior management roles in Main Roads WA, the Department for Planning and Infrastructure and the Department of Transport. He holds a Bachelor of Business (Accounting) degree and is a fellow of the Institute of Public Accountants. His professional interest is in the areas of financial management, business performance and procurement.
Kevin is the PTA’s Chief Finance Officer, responsible for maintaining the PTA’s financial management and procurement systems and processes.
David Browne
Acting Executive Director, Safety and Strategic Development
David joined PTA predecessor WAGRC in December 2002 as a Policy Officer and has a Master of Transport Studies degree (UWA) as well as qualifications in policy and management. Before joining the PTA, David spent 20 years in the aviation industry including 15 years in the RAAF where he worked in a number of areas including strategic airspace management policy and planning.
His role includes making the link between high-level policy and operations within the agency, managing a number of key projects, and driving strategic change in safety, policy development and business management.
Brian Appleby
Executive Director, People and Organisational Development
Brian brings to the organisation more than 20 years’ experience in labour relations, human resource management, workforce services issues and learning and development. After beginning his career in the private sector, Brian has undertaken a range of roles as an operative, operational manager and director in key public sector agencies and central government departments. He holds a post-graduate qualification in Industrial Relations, is a former Australian Army Reserve officer and is a Director of the Rail Skills Career Council.
Along with his responsibility for strategic people management, Brian oversees the delivery of functional human resource services for the PTA’s people. He commenced his appointment in February 2008.
Hugh Smith
Executive Director, Strategic Asset Management Development
Hugh launched his engineering career at British Steel in the United Kingdom and joined WAGRC in 1972 as an assistant engineer at the Midland Workshops, where he subsequently held senior management positions in design and production. He was appointed General Manager of the Urban Passenger Division in 1994.
In this role he was responsible for developing strategies for customer focus, reliability of services and improved OTR of trains. Following the sale of WAGR’s freight business in December 2000, Hugh was appointed General Manager, N&I in an organisation focused exclusively on passenger transport and customer service
In October 2010 Hugh took on the role of Executive Director Strategic Asset Management Development responsible for the implementation of policies, strategies and actions for the effective asset management of PTA assets.
Ross Hamilton
Executive Director, Major Projects
Ross has worked for Westrail and the PTA for 23 years in various roles including Construction, Planning Land Rationalisation and Maintenance. With the inception of the PTA he worked as the Manager Track and Civil Infrastructure and then took over the construction of the Mandurah railway through the critical commissioning phase for the commencement of services in December 2007.
Ross is responsible for the delivery of major projects for the PTA and is currently working on the Perth City Link project and the extension to the Northern Suburbs Railway from Clarkson to Butler.
Peter Martinovich
Executive Director, Infrastructure Planning and Land Services
Peter began his railway career with WAGR as a junior clerk in 1964 and graduated as an engineer in Westrail’s Civil Engineering branch in 1974. He returned to this branch after a two-year stint with the Australian Railways Research and Development Organisation in Melbourne in the early 80s, and was made Maintenance Engineer in 1987.
He became Manager, Transit Planning with the Department of Transport in 1995, and set up and led the team which developed the South West Metropolitan Railway and Northern Suburbs Extension Master Plans. He was appointed Deputy Project Director of NMR in 2003 and, after completion of this project, became Director of Railway and Infrastructure Planning within the PTA’s N&I division.
In 2009, he was appointed Executive Director of the newly-formed Infrastructure Planning and Land Services division.
David Hynes
Acting Manager Corporate Communications
David brought a wealth of communications experience to the PTA (then WAGRC) when he joined the organisation in 2003 and has been a significant contributor to its communications activities, especially media relations, since then. Immediately prior to his appointment he had been working as a government media adviser to a senior Cabinet Minister.
He had previously worked as a freelance journalist, writing for a range of national and international publications, and run his own public relations consultancy, providing high-level strategic advice to a big number of clients. This followed a 20-year career at WA Newspapers working on the Daily News, Weekend News and Countryman, culminating in a three-year stint as Business and Finance Editor of The West Australian.