Carolina Smith

• Launched and managed a personal growth blog focused on healing and spiritual awakening following my son's diagnosis with a medical condition; achieved a peak of 483 monthly reads and grew to ~900 followers at peak reach.
• Refined audience quality through a targeted cleanup of inactive accounts, retaining 248 engaged followers and 34 active subscribers, improving engagement relevance and content conversion.
• Produced narrative content that strengthened stakeholder engagement, converting ~40 peak readers into ~30 repeat, engaged connections, demonstrating sustained relationship building and community retention.
• Planned and executed editorial cycles, producing 10 posts per month and tracking engagement metrics (48 average reads per post, 30 comments per post).
• Applied project discipline by planning editorial calendars, tracking analytics, and iterating content strategy based on engagement metrics.

Took a career break to care for my son, who was diagnosed with a medical condition. During this time, I:

• Developed strong emotional resilience and adaptability by engaging in personal development programs, equipping me to effectively navigate high-pressure and unpredictable situations—a key competency in managing projects with competing priorities.
• Mastered advocacy and process navigation by working through the complexities of the NDIS systems to address my son's needs. This experience sharpened my research, problem-solving, and stakeholder management capabilities—skills central to coordinating and delivering successful projects.
• Secured NDIS funding increase by preparing and presenting evidence-based documentation — funding rose from $65,000 to $108,500, enabling intensive therapy and in-home care for my son. This achievement illustrates my ability to influence decisions, mediate discussions, and achieve measurable outcomes, even in challenging circumstances.

• Delivered project assurance through health checks and stage‑gate reviews across 9 programs, identifying governance gaps and driving corrective actions that improved schedule variance by 10%.
• Improved business case quality by reviewing and strengthening 12 submissions, enabling their approval and reducing amendment requests by 15%
• Improved governance and delivery outcomes by delivering 4 structured health checks, 12 stage‑gate reviews, and assurance engagements for 12 projects; identified and closed 9 high‑risk issues, reduced amendment cycles by 15%, and increased on‑time milestone delivery from 75% to 85%, enabling clearer executive decisions and fewer escalations.
• Analysed performance and risk data to surface emerging issues and coordinate mitigation plans, reducing high‑impact escalations by 12%
• Advised on benefits realisation and closure, establishing KPIs and reporting formats used by 9 teams to track outcomes.

• Provided project management support across a portfolio of 5 reform initiatives, improving scope definition and risk management practices that increased delivery success by 7% as measured by delivery within project constraints.
• Designed and piloted the implementation of health‑check standards and templates, adopted by 3 teams during the pilot phase, which paved the way for full adoption.
• Led assurance and health‑check services for 9 projects, standardising assessment criteria and tools that reduced variance in outcomes by 3%
• Prepared executive‑level reporting for reform portfolios, producing 10 board briefings that enabled timely governance decisions and reduced decision turnaround by 8 days.

• Managed PMO services for Aristocrat’s ERP transformation program (value: $85M), strengthening governance across 3 workstreams. Oversaw planning, resource allocation, prioritisation, schedule tracking, risk/issue management, and executive reporting, reducing escalations by 20% and improving milestone adherence from 79% baseline to 90%. Led software testing for the first three sprints, resolving 45 defects and ensuring a stable, high‑quality transition into subsequent releases.
• Orchestrated a rapid, business‑critical transition of Toyota’s digital support services after the unexpected liquidation of vendor HotHouse. Completed the migration in 6 weeks with 100% uptime, safeguarding Toyota’s operational capacity, customer service continuity, and brand reputation during a high‑risk incident.
• Led Optus’s enterprise governance and methodology assessment, revealing a complete absence of consistent delivery standards or reporting. Designed a PMBOK‑aligned framework and template suite that enabled the EPMO to move from 0% to full organisational capability to measure performance, compare projects consistently, and escalate decisions based on reliable data.
• Designed Oakton’s first enterprise‑wide project reporting framework and dashboard after years of unsuccessful attempts by previous leaders, moving the organisation from 0% to full capability to measure, compare, and govern project performance. The standard was adopted by over 100 teams across all accounts, becoming Oakton’s gold‑standard reporting model and enabling consistent executive decision‑making for the first time. Recognised with the July 2011 Town Hall Award for Performance Excellence. Additionally, onboarded project managers to ensure governance compliance, managed budgeting and forecasting for the Leighton account, and improved invoice payment timeliness from a 30‑day overdue lag to on‑time settlement, strengthening cashflow reliability.
• Conducted a comprehensive assessment of project governance and delivery practices for the UNSW IT Group, uncovering the absence of a standard delivery framework and identifying the root causes behind recurring project issues. Delivered a clear diagnostic report and actionable improvement plan aligned with PRINCE2 and SDLC best practices, enabling senior management to move from zero visibility to full understanding of deficiencies and to take targeted improvement actions for the first time.
• Delivered a comprehensive assessment of project governance for Infigen Energy, revealing the absence of standard delivery practices and the root causes behind recurring project issues. Produced a project management foundation pack—including governance frameworks, delivery processes, roles, responsibilities, and stage‑gate templates—that moved the organisation from zero visibility to full capability to measure performance, compare projects, and support informed decision‑making.
• Led PMO for the $100M Waratah PPP at RailCorp: tailored methodology; completed QA across 3 releases and 9 phases; executed 9 budgeting cycles; approved 48 scope/contract changes valued at $7M; closed 76 risks/issues; and secured $29M additional funding, safeguarding the program's continuity and the rollout of the new business model.

• Designed and implemented the project governance framework for the Financial Improvement Program (FIP), improving delivery consistency and operational visibility.
• Led the transition of 12 programs/projects into a new enterprise project management (EPM) tool, training over 60 staff across 12 teams and ensuring seamless adoption through targeted training, skills assessments, and ongoing support.