Jacqueline Wilson appointed EBC chairman

For­mer Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment, Jacque­line Wil­son, has been ap­point­ed as a mem­ber and chair­man of the Elec­tions and Bound­aries Com­mis­sion (EBC).

Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo ad­min­is­tered the Oath of Of­fice and pre­sent­ed the In­stru­ment of Ap­point­ment to Wil­son dur­ing a cer­e­mo­ny at Pres­i­dent’s House on Mon­day.

Wil­son brings decades of ex­pe­ri­ence in pub­lic ad­min­is­tra­tion, gov­er­nance and in­sti­tu­tion­al re­form to the role. She pre­vi­ous­ly served as Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment and al­so worked as a di­rec­tor in the Gov­er­nance and In­sti­tu­tion­al De­vel­op­ment Di­vi­sion of the Com­mon­wealth Sec­re­tari­at in Lon­don.

Wil­son holds a Mas­ter of Arts in Po­lit­i­cal Sci­ence with a ma­jor in Hu­man Re­source Man­age­ment, as well as a Bach­e­lor of Arts with Ho­n­ours in Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wind­sor in On­tario, Cana­da.

Through­out her ca­reer, Wil­son played a key role in the de­vel­op­ment and re­struc­tur­ing of sev­er­al state in­sti­tu­tions. She helped es­tab­lish the first Min­istry of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion and In­for­ma­tion and served as the first Sec­re­tary to the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty. She al­so con­tributed to the or­gan­i­sa­tion­al re­design of the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty and lat­er as­sist­ed in set­ting up the Min­istry of Dig­i­tal Trans­for­ma­tion.

Dur­ing her tenure as Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary be­tween 2002 and 2006, Wil­son trans­formed the Min­istry of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion in­to a ma­jor plat­form for pub­lic sec­tor re­form. Her work sup­port­ed ini­tia­tives in­clud­ing the Gov­ern­ment Hu­man Re­source Ser­vice, the Gov­ern­ment In­for­ma­tion Ser­vice and the ttCon­nect Ser­vice Cen­tre.

In 2007, Wil­son joined the Com­mon­wealth Sec­re­tari­at where she sup­port­ed pub­lic sec­tor de­vel­op­ment across mem­ber states, par­tic­u­lar­ly coun­tries un­der­go­ing po­lit­i­cal and ad­min­is­tra­tive tran­si­tion. Her work fo­cused on help­ing gov­ern­ments align in­sti­tu­tion­al struc­tures and de­liv­ery sys­tems with pol­i­cy pri­or­i­ties.

From 2010 un­til her re­tire­ment, Wil­son act­ed as Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment. Since leav­ing the pub­lic ser­vice, she has con­tin­ued to ad­vise gov­ern­ments, min­istries and re­gion­al in­sti­tu­tions on strate­gic and gov­er­nance mat­ters.

Her post-re­tire­ment roles have in­clud­ed Chief Dig­i­tal Trans­for­ma­tion Ad­vis­er in the Min­istry of Dig­i­tal Trans­for­ma­tion, Deputy Chair­man of the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty and Deputy Chair­man on the Po­lice Ser­vice Man­pow­er Au­dit Com­mit­tee.

Wil­son’s con­tri­bu­tions to pub­lic ad­min­is­tra­tion earned her the Pub­lic Ser­vice Medal of Mer­it (Gold) in 2017 and the Gor­don Drap­er Award for Pub­lic Ser­vice Trans­for­ma­tion in 2023.