Hillary Hartley is leaving the Government of Ontario. We want to publicly say “thank you” to her for her service.

Under Hillary’s leadership, the Ontario Digital Service has gone from strength to strength, and delivered a long list of impressive services such as find financial support for students, a searchable environmental registry, a data catalogue, a 14 point digital service standard, and most impressively of all, legislation that will help keep the momentum going for years to come, in the form of the Simpler Faster Better Services Act 2019. (Which was written, iterated and passed in 70 days. Amazing.)

We worked with the Ontario government from the early days, helping to scale the team up after it had built the first user-centric version of ontario.ca. Shortly afterwards, we helped them hire Hillary as a leader. We knew her enthusiasm, energy and cheery positivity would be a good fit there.

Hillary’s one of those rare people who really lives up to the term “inspirational leader”. She has that instinct to put trust in her team, to give them permission to try things out and fail if need be – then learn from those mistakes.

Just watch this very short video (2 mins) to understand what we mean by that. In it, Hillary explains how one of the teams working for her spotted a problem, devised a fix, and made a working prototype to show to senior leaders. All without being asked, or asking for permission:

By leading the way in Ontario, and taking the time to tell her team’s stories to others, she has been a catalyst for better digital government across Canada and beyond. Hillary’s a leader who’s respected without seeking respect. She’s wise without wearing wisdom on her sleeve. She plays a mean game of Werewolf.

Thanks for everything, Hillary, and good luck with whatever you decide to do next. Wherever you end up, they’ll be very lucky to have you.