Department of Customer Service Secretary Graeme Head has appointed James Sherrard to the role of NSW Building Commissioner, taking the reins from David Chandler who retired in August.
James has more than 30 years’ experience spanning global construction projects with specialist expertise in strategy, commercial and infrastructure areas. His previous role was Head of Commercial, Performance and Strategy at Transport NSW, where he led a team responsible for contract frameworks, the acquisition of property for major infrastructure projects, procurement including several multi-billion-dollar projects and an analytics team.
He has been a project manager on civic, residential and sporting infrastructure projects across metropolitan and regional NSW and globally including the Sydney and London Olympics and has formal qualifications in building, business and law. He has worked at senior levels in professional services consulting, focused on infrastructure and urban renewal.
James’ experience in international construction projects between 2004 and 2015 spanned time working in the UK, Algeria, Afghanistan and Hong Kong.
Minister for Building Anoulack Chanthivong says “Mr Sherrard is well placed
to take the Building Commission to the next level in its development”. Last year, the NSW Government launched Building Commission NSW, transforming a 10 person Office of the Building Commissioner into a more than
400-strong standalone regulator.
Matt Press will continue as Acting Building Commissioner until James joins Building
Commission NSW on 2 December.