Thursday 30 June 2022 06:33 AM John Barilaro: Investment NSW CEO Amy Brown on 'Jesus' management tyle trends now
A government bureaucrat who stripped her co-worker of a plum $500,000 job in favour of her former boss bases her management style on 'what Jesus would do' as she comes under fire for the controversial move.
Investment NSW CEO and trade secretary Amy Brown told a parliamentary inquiry on Wednesday that she revoked a verbal job offer for a $500,000 trading post in New York last year.
The three-year contract had been offered to then-deputy secretary Jenny West before former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro, Ms Brown's boss at the time, changed the recruitment requirements.
NSW trade secretary Amy Brown (above) said she models her management style after Jesus's leadership after she retracted a dream New York job offer from her colleague Jenny West
The job was later offered to Mr Barilaro, with the former deputy premier due to start the coveted role in two weeks.
Ms Brown was thrown into the spotlight this month over the New York job but before she attracted the attention of Australia's media, the bureaucrat had already spoken to the media.
In an interview in February, Ms Brown spoke about how she based her management of some 6000 employees on 'what Jesus would do'.
'What would Jesus do if he were me in these life circumstances, in this job, with this issue before me and serving the people that I lead?,' Ms Brown told Eternity News, referring to the way she thinks about leading.
'He showed up for the people when they needed him and he really put every person at the centre.'
A parliamentary inquiry (above) sat for the first time on Wednesday to investigate the retraction of Ms West's job offer and the new candidate's selection, John Barilaro
Ms Brown said God offered her a sense of relief in her 'exhausting' job because her actions are part of his 'plan'.
'It started to dawn on me how exhausting it is to have to live that way where every single outcome depends on you,' she said.
'If you don’t perform to the highest standard at that meeting or if you’re not in the right place at the right time...that is a really exhausting way to live.
'Having kids gives you that perspective and you don’t have time to be able to be everywhere and do everything and so you have to let go and let God.'
Ms Brown said she tried to lead by thinking of 'the good of your people'.
'I think God really speaks through the leadership of Christians in that servant leadership mentality,' Ms Brown told Eternity News.
'You put the good of your people at the heart of the way you lead and what you do and the decisions you make.'
Jenny West (pictured), then the deputy secretary of Investment NSW, was told in August last year that she was selected for a $500,000 trade post job in New York
Ms West's dream job in New York City was taken from her - leaving her upset
Ms Brown joined 'Club 600' this year when she scored a pay rise that saw her earn $614,000 a year.
Ms Brown's revocation of Ms West's job and selection of Mr Barilaro is now the subject of a parliamentary inquest, which sat for the first time on Wednesday.
Ms Brown told the inquiry that Ms West had been 'extremely upset' when her dream job offer was revoked which led to an 'irreconcilable' relationship with Investment NSW.
Ms West is no longer working with government and was given an undisclosed payout after three years of public service.
Then-NSW trade minister John Barilaro (above) changed the job's recruitment process after Ms West had been offered the positions and went on to be offered the job himself in May this year
Ms West was offered the New York job boasting a $487,000 salary plus a $16,000 cost
