Bachelor of Natural Resources
University of New England
Honours Class 1
Arnae Burton
Director
- Brisbane, Queensland
- arnae.burton@infragroup.com.au
Arnae Burton
Director
- Brisbane, Queensland
- arnae.burton@infragroup.com.au
Career Overview
With nearly 20 years' experience as a program manager and director within the Australian and Queensland Governments, Arnae has extensive experience designing program, project and organisational governance and delivery frameworks in a public sector context, to ensure organisations manage risk and demonstrate public benefit, value for money and sustainability.
Arnae applies an outcomes-focussed approach to plan, engage stakeholders, design and deliver robust, pragmatic and implementable solutions to complex problems. These strategic skills have allowed Arnae to lead teams in both regulatory and industry-facing roles, delivering for multiple government portfolios including resources, clean energy, tourism and environment, and more recently as a contractor in transport and housing.
Arnae’s government infrastructure development roles involved coordinating multi-disciplinary inputs including land use planning, stakeholder engagement, economic and financial modelling into feasibility studies, business cases and funding submissions across multiple portfolios. Arnae’s knowledge of public sector processes in an infrastructure context provides an ability to navigate clients and projects successfully through the project lifecycle while meeting government requirements.
Benefits Arnae provides to clients
Strategic focus – using an analytical and strategic approach, Arnae has expertise in developing and implementing strategy and executing projects.
Project management – balancing time, scope, cost, and quality in commercially and politically sensitive environments.
Stakeholder management - strong interpersonal and communication skills, experienced in influencing parties essential to each project’s success.
Governance – developing fit for purpose governance arrangements, particularly within the government program environment.
Government operations – in-depth knowledge of government processes and internal operations.
Selected Key Experience
2022current
Housing Investment Fund, Queensland Treasury / Department of Housing
Program Manager
The Housing Investment Fund is a $2 billion investment providing $130 million per annum for investment in social and affordable housing over 20 years. The Fund will support 5600 new social and affordable homes by June 2027. Arnae leads the Program Management Office function supporting the transaction process, including reporting, resourcing, budget, modelling, scheduling, governance, risk and policy advisory services. Arnae also co-designed and administers grant funding for an industry capacity building program for the community housing provider sector.
20082010
Office of Clean Energy, Queensland Government
Manager / Director
Arnae lead a high-performing develop policy and programs team to deliver on the State’s clean energy agenda including residential solar, energy efficiency and demand management programs. Delivered investment business cases for cabinet approval, strategy and program design. Working with technical SMEs from the energy industry and across government-owned electricity corporations, the role involved coordinating feasibility studies and business cases for government consideration, designing programs and implementation strategies, securing funding approval and implementing programs in partnership with agencies and industry stakeholders. Supported the Queensland Government's policy at national forums for energy efficiency regulation, including progressing minimum efficiency standards for appliances and government buildings.
20222022
Inland Rail
Business Case Lead
Inland Rail – Renewable Energy for Rail Systems – Internal Business Case
Arnae led an internal business case to support executive consideration of an expanded roll out of solar power and storage for rail systems across multiple works packages, including energy cost and carbon emissions reduction analysis.
20182021
Department of Tourism, Innovation and Sport - Tourism Industry and Infrastructure Development, Queensland Government
Manager / Director
Arnae lead the design, planning, procurement and delivery of ecotourism infrastructure investigations including feasibility studies, economic analyses and business cases. This involved engagement with tourism proponents and local councils to inform project development and tailor submissions to funding requirements.
As Director, Arnae administered over $100 million in tourism grant and aviation attraction programs. This role involved time-pressured program design and establishment, project assessment, industry engagement, coordination of approvals, procurement, contract administration and implementation of evaluation frameworks. Arnae’s team secured approvals for over $30 million worth of new tourism and aviation projects and streamlined the administration of two existing aviation programs worth $70 million.
20162018
Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games - Legacy Programs, Queensland Government
Director / Program Manager
With the Office of the Commonwealth Games, Arnae led delivery of Embracing 2018 legacy programs to increase benefits from the hosting of the Games. Partnering with stakeholders across three levels of government to deliver programs across tourism, business development, community engagement, sport and healthy lifestyles and social inclusion. The role involved designing and leading delivery of grants, events, promotions, sponsorships and sports assets allocation / gifting projects in compressed timeframes, as well as evaluation and closure post-Games.