Print Page

Company History

Origins and growth of the Centre for Public Management (CPM)

CPM was founded in 1991 by its current Executive Director, Dr John R Baker.

After leaving academia John had a 15 year career in the APS, which included 12 years in the SES working in the predecessor bodies of AusAID; Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries; DFAT (where he was an Ambassador and High Commissioner in East Africa); PM & C; and the APS Commission.

His early consulting work was with the World Bank, specialising in public sector reform and leadership training in Eastern Europe and the developing countries of Africa and the South Pacific, where he headed a multi-year regional management and leadership development program.

Having established CPM in 1991, he was Manager in Residence for 8 years for the APSC’s Band One SES program.  In 1995 he and Walter Bellin launched CPM’s first program, 'From Management to Leadership', a very successful four-day residential program for EL1 & 2 managers which, after various reviews and significant redesign, continues to the present day.

Now in 2011 CPM is running twelve residential programs open to public servants from across all departments and agencies, plus a wide range of in-house programs for individual organisations, including some run overseas.

The consultants running CPM's courses include a number of very senior and experienced public sector specialists who have their own consulting firms.  Most of them have worked with CPM for many years.

In recent years the company has diversified somewhat  by providing a range of 360° feedback services and establishing a new arm of the business, CPM Reviews, which provides ethical and professional reviews of employment decisions and actions to the public sector.

John is currently progressively transferring the management of the business to his son, Drew Baker, who has been with CPM for four years and General Manager of the company for the past two years. Drew worked in the public sector for twelve years prior to joining CPM, including four years as an SES officer in several APS departments.