Australian political secretary and interior designer Ainsley Gotto, Died at 72

Ainsley Gotto was born on 14 February 1946 and died on 25 February 2018.

She was an Australian public servant and entrepreneur.

Gotto was the private secretary to Prime Minister John Gorton in the late 1960s.

Gotto began work as a typist at the Department of Immigration, but left after a few months to work for a private firm.

Gotto returned to government work at the Trade Commissioner Service after a year.

During 1966, she was served as the secretary to William Aston, then government chief whip, where she remained on to work for Dudley Erwin when he replaced Aston as whip.

When she left public service between 1972 and 1978, she began working for Bill Pollock at the Canadian recruitment company Drake International in Australia.

Gotto then returned to Britain where she worked at personnel agencies in London and Monaco.

During the early 80s, she worked as a television presenter for Granada Television in Britain.

She worked in a variety of business ventures including an interior design consultancy on the Gold Coast, and her own company, Ainsley Gotto International.

Gotto served as the National President of the Australian chapter of Women Chiefs of Enterprises International, a non-profit organization for women entrepreneurs, from 2001 to 2003.

In 2008, Gotto went back to Parliament House as chief of staff to then shadow finance minister, Senator Helen Coonan.

She got married to lawyer Nick Carson in July 1993 and lived in Double Bay, Sydney.

She donated her official and personal papers to the National Library of Australia in 2015, to be released only on her death or if she agreed to their earlier release.

She died at 72 years old, eleven days after her birthday, at Wolper Jewish Hospital in Woollahra, Sydney on 25 February 2018 due to complications from cancer.