Jennifer Smith
Chief Executive Officer

Jennifer has a broad range of management experience and leadership skills with demonstrated achievements in financial planning, corporate governance, policy development and the delivery of services across both private and public sectors. 

Prior to joining the RTA, Jennifer held various executive roles at Brisbane City Council. These roles included Assurance Delivery and Performance Manager, Financial Projects Manager and senior appointments within Corporate Treasury. 

Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Business majoring in Accountancy from the Queensland University of Technology and is an accredited Workplace Executive Coach. 

Joanna van der Merwe
Chief Financial Officer

Joanna Van Der Merwe leads the Financial and Assurance Services division, which includes finance, governance and risk, investigations, government relations, project governance, strategy and business improvement. 

Prior to joining the RTA in September 2019, Joanna held various executive roles at Brisbane City Council, including Strategy and Reporting Manager, Financial Performance Manager, and Corporate Benefits Manager and commercial and finance roles in the food and home electronics industries in the UK. 

Joanna holds a Bachelor of Business and is a Chartered Management Accountant and a member of CPA Australia. 

Samantha Watson
Chief Customer Experience Officer

Samantha Watson leads the RTA's Customer Experience division, which includes the Contact Centre, bond management, support and dispute resolution.  

Samantha is an experienced executive who has led improvement and transformation programs across a number of complex customer-focused organisational environments. This includes local government, not-for-profit, public and private sectors including health and insurance in both national and global businesses. She has strong financial portfolio management experience and has successfully delivered enterprise-wide service delivery programs across customer experience and lifecycle, digital and service delivery transformations, operational process upgrades and cultural changes.   

Samantha holds a dual degree in Business and Organisational Psychology and holds qualifications in LEAN and Six Sigma process improvement methodologies, project management and marketing. 

Natalie Townsend
Chief People Officer

Natalie Townsend leads the People and Culture division, overseeing the RTA's human resources, training, change management, media, communication and education teams. 

Natalie brings extensive project experience across a range of activities from system implementation – including rolling out the RTA's human resources information system, learning management system, and performance framework and related systems – to organisational transformation activities and reform initiatives.  

Natalie holds a Diploma of Business, a Bachelor of Business with double majors in Management and Human Resource Management along with other accreditations in tools such as DISC and Talegent.  

Natalie is also a CAHRI member of the Australian Human Resources Institute. 

Greg Watts
Chief Digital Officer

Greg Watts leads the RTA's Digital Business Centre, which supports the RTA's business systems, standard operating environments and applications along with the RTA’s information management processes. This includes records management and the business intelligence teams which facilitate strategic direction and corporate decision-making. 

Greg is an experienced information and communication technology (ICT) executive  
with proven success in leading a range of digital and business transformation projects and programs. For more than two decades, Greg has led and partnered with expert, multidisciplinary teams to deliver business outcomes through digital strategy and governance, cyber security, enterprise architecture, cloud transformation, high-availability systems, and vendor and business applications management. 

Greg holds a Master of Business Administration, Bachelor of Commerce and is a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.