A new boss is set to lead Victoria’s push to eradicate combustible cladding as the government in that state ramps up efforts to deal with dangerous buildings.

In a statement released last Friday, Planning Minister Richard Wynne announced that Dan O’Brien had been appointed as the chief executive officer of the newly formed Cladding Safety Victoria, which has been established to oversee a $600 million program of rectification works which will take place on hundreds of buildings across the state which have high risk cladding.

O’Brien in the current CEO of Incolink, a joint initiative of unions and employer associations which administered redundancy, portable sick leave and income protection insurance schemes across the civil and commercial building sector in Victoria and Tasmania.

Previous experience includes executive roles at the National Australia Bank and Medibank Private and senior roles in both the Victorian and Federal governments – including Chief Executive of Regional Development Victoria and Deputy Secretary of the Department of Regional Development, Arts and Sports (Federal).

O’Brien will lead the agency as it manages the funding and works with owners corporations from to ensure that buildings are safe and compliant with regulations.

An audit by the Cladding Taskforce set up by the government in the wake of the Grenfell disaster revealed that 1,369 privately owned buildings throughout Victoria have cladding.

Of these.72 were found to be of extreme risk whilst a further 409 were assessed as ‘highest risk’.

Wynn welcomed the appointment.

“Dan O’Brien is a highly experienced chief executive and has the proven skills to lead CSV as it carries out vital work to make Victorian buildings safe,” he said.

“Dangerous cladding is an international problem and Victoria is leading the world in responding to it – establishing CSV to oversee landmark investment to fix hundreds of high-risk buildings across the State.”