The former managing director of the ABC, Mark Scott, has been appointed as the new secretary of the NSW Department of Education.
Mr Scott, a former teacher, political advisor and editor before guiding the ABC into the digital era will absorb a pay cut of up to $300,000 to take on the role.
On Thursday, NSW Premier Mike Baird called Mr Scott "one of the great leaders in this country."
"He brings a proven track record, a deep understanding and passion for education," said Mr Baird.
The department is Australia's largest single organisation across both the public and private sectors.
In his new role Mr Scott will be responsible for more than 2000 schools and 49,000 teachers, 10 times the number of staff that were under his control at the ABC.
Despite the extra responsibility, Mr Scott will take a pay cut of at least $260,000.
ABC annual reports reveal the former managing director was paid $823,613 in 2013-14, which was scheduled to rise again last year.
It is understood the NSW government has applied to the NSW Remuneration Tribunal to approve his executive starting salary of $560,000, $20,000 more than his predecessor Michele Bruniges, who is now the head of the federal Department of Education.
Mr Scott said he was "deeply honoured" to be taking on the role.
"When this opportunity opened up, I must say I could not think of anything more significant and worthwhile to invest my time in public service," he said.
On Thursday, Mr Scott, a former senior advisor to controversial former NSW education minister Terry Metherell in the late 1980s, was asked if he intended to pursue any of the policies he oversaw during that time, including widespread school closures and the loss of 2500 teacher positions.
The closure of schools led to the biggest street demonstrations in Sydney since the Vietnam War, with 100,000 teachers, parents and students marching on Macquarie Street. The policy is now being blamed for school shortages across the metropolitan region.
In April, Fairfax Media revealed the state's surging school-age population has created a budget crisis of at least $11 billion, raising the prospect of a shortage of thousands of classrooms for Sydney's children.
I'd like you to meet the new head of the NSW Department of Education. Welcome aboard @mscott pic.twitter.com/7Nja7NQhoX— Mike Baird (@mikebairdMP) June 2, 2016
"If you really want a sense of how I'll approach the job you need to look at what I did in the last decade rather than in the last century - that was a long time ago," Mr Scott said on Thursday.
The former private school teacher was also questioned on his commitment to public education. His children attended private schools and his wife is the headmistress of north shore private school Wenona. Mr Scott is an alumni of Knox Grammar and took his first teaching job at St Andrew's Cathedral school.
"We have an education system that is based around choice and there are plenty of families who send their kids to public schools and Catholic schools and the independent schools," Mr Scott said. "Of course, part of my responsibility encompasses all of the system."
Mr Scott will take the reins as NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli continues to lobby his federal counterparts for billions of dollars in needs-based Gonski funding.
Mr Piccoli said the department's focus remained on improving student results and the skills base needed to grow the NSW economy.
"I look forward to working with Mark to continue delivering the most comprehensive set of reforms of school education in a century," he said.
Before his decade-long role as the head of the ABC, Mr Scott was an education reporter at the Sydney Morning Herald and later a senior executive at its publisher, Fairfax Media.
He will begin his new role in August.
