Summary
Overview
Work History
Education
Skills
Certification
Accomplishments
Languages
Public Speaking
Timeline
Work Availability
Interests
Work Preference
Websites
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Lenka Bednarikova

Lenka Bednarikova

Sydney,NSW

Summary

Senior leader in digital, data & AI transformation delivery whose passion lies in solving seemingly impossible business problems.

Skilled in strategic planning, business development, and financial management, with focus on driving growth and operational efficiency. Known for fostering collaborative environments, adapting to changing market conditions, and delivering measurable results. Highly reliable and adept at aligning team efforts with organizational goals to achieve significant impact.

Overview

19
19
years of professional experience
30
30

Certifications & courses

Work History

CO-FOUNDER

Orli Technology Ltd
01.2023 - Current
  • Company Overview: Technology services, tech for good
  • Advise Orli Tech CEO on how to run an effective customer focused tech consultancy
  • Advise start-ups and NFP's on digitisation and AI solutions

HEAD OF Data & AI, IoT, Digital (reporting to CTO)

Telstra Technology Services / Telstra Purple
01.2019 - Current
  • Company Overview: Technology services consulting
  • Held three 'Head of' roles over the period of 6.5 year


OVERALL ROLES SUMMARY

  • Accountable for strategy, P&L, delivery, partnerships, client and employee satisfaction
  • Lead cross functional teams who solve impactful business problems for enterprise clients across AI, data, digital, IoT
  • Served as an individual contributor, as well as a people leader of 90+ consultants
  • Collaborated with cross-functional intra-company matrixed teams to provide mutually beneficial outcomes
  • Contributed to and lead M&A strategy and subsequent due diligence and acquisitions
  • Increased business performance metrics in every role


SEE DETAILS PER ROLE BELOW

HEAD OF DATA & AI

Telstra Purple
03.2023 - Current
  • Lead all aspects of the D&AI Practice, from strategy, P&L, go to market, strategic partnerships, pre-sales and execution
  • Ensure the Practice has a strong team of consultants to design and deliver end-to-end D&AI transformations at scale (from data engineering and platforms to advanced analytics and responsible AI solutions)
  • Design and implement a ready-for-scale org structure and operating model of the Practice
  • Grow and expand the Practice through impactful strategy, transparent leadership, honest advise to clients and deepening strategic partnerships (i.e., Microsoft, Databricks, AWS, Snowflake)
  • Advise Enterprise clients on data & AI strategy, governance frameworks (including Ethical AI), implementation roadmaps, and solution delivery
  • Oversee implementation teams in escalation and problem solving capacity
  • Represent Telstra Purple at Telstra’s Data & AI Risk Council (governs Telstra’s overall D&AI risk posture)
  • Sponsor the design and implementation of Telstra Purple’s AI Governance Framework
  • Line manager to 3 direct reports (Directors), with extended team of ~100 data & AI consultants
  • Increased the Practice pipeline 4x (the 3 year record high)
  • Onboarded several new strategic clients in public and private sector, resulting in $10M+ additional revenue
  • Increased employee engagement and customer satisfaction by ~20%

HEAD OF IoT

Telstra Purple
10.2021 - 02.2023
  • Developed and executed overall Practice strategy which included technology, GTM, partners and vendors ecosystem, target acquisitions and operating model changes required for the Practice to scale to planned growth ($300M p/a)
  • Accountable for driving Practice M&A strategy, delivering M&A business case, and leading due diligence on potential M&A targets
  • Accountable for Practice P&L (revenue, EBITDA), inc. people investment decisions
  • Increased Practice revenue from $0.3M to $80M in the first year (inorganic and organic growth)

HEAD OF DELIVERY, NSW DIGITAL

Telstra Purple
09.2019 - 01.2021
  • Lead all aspects of the NSW Digital business unit from strategy, go to market, pre-sales, execution, workforce planning, HR and Finance
  • Ensured effective strategy and continuous improvement are in place to drive profitability, growth and long term client relationships, and employee engagement
  • Nurtured culture of delivering impactful digital transformation outcomes to the delight of our clients
  • Increased all performance metrics by over 30% (revenue, utilisation, employee engagement and retention)
  • Recognised as one of the top performing units nationally

TRANSFORMATION DELIVERY PRINCIPAL

Telstra
08.2017 - 09.2019
  • Company Overview: B2B Digitisation in Telecom
  • Owned the end-to-end delivery approach of the B2B Digitisation Program ($850mil p/a), built on Agile methods
  • Lead a globally dispersed team of ~85 Scrum Masters, ensuring a flexible yet unified delivery of the right outcomes
  • Coached senior stakeholders on business agility
  • Developed data-driven business insights to inform strategic decisions and drive delivery improvements
  • Improved overall efficiency with the introduction of agile methodologies and performance metrics
  • Optimized resource allocation, reducing operational costs and enhancing profitability
  • Enhanced employee engagement and capability through targeted training programs and transparent performance evaluations

DIGITAL MANAGER / ENGAGEMENT MANAGER

McKinsey & Company
05.2016 - 06.2017
  • Lead and delivered high impact digital projects from service redesign and digitisation, digital strategy creation and execution, to organisational capability building
  • Counselled global clients on digital transformation strategy and execution
  • Lead and participated in tender responses and pre-sales
  • Managed, coached, and developed direct reports

AGILE PROJECT MANAGER / PROGRAM DELIVERY MANAGER

AMP
10.2015 - 04.2016
  • “Agilified” the strategic portfolio planning process in preparation for 2016 priorities
  • Lead a high profile program of work (banking mobile app development) and embedded Agile ways of working to enable customer centric iterative delivery in the Digital business unit
  • Organized the Advice Transformation program of work, including teams structure, program backlog, and flow of work across the whole program, to enable Agile ways of working

SENIOR AGILE PROJECT MANAGER

Commonwealth Bank of Australia
06.2014 - 09.2015
  • Helped transform the Sabre Cyber Security program ($350mil) in Digital Protection Group to Agile ways of working
  • Lead the Core Applications stream (FY budget $17mil) – implementation of security analytics (next generation SIEM) and cyber security support tools (Archer SecOps and Resilient Systems)
  • Lead Agile transformation of the Customer Contact Strategy (Data Analytics) department, one of the first non-software development areas in CBA
  • Part of the CBA-wide Agile Transformation Program Team. The objective of this program were to create solid foundations across the Group to enable consistency across all Agile Practices in CBA, support continuous maturity of practicing Agile, and expand Agile capability across the Group to areas that would benefit from it.
  • Increased the speed of planning and delivery by ~30% across all teams
  • Increased employee engagement by ~40%

SCRUM MASTER

Bankwest (part of Commonwealth Bank Group)
08.2013 - 06.2014
  • Acted as the Lead Scrum Master in the Productivity Domain (lead 4 agile teams) with the main objective to help Bankwest's customers and business colleagues work more efficiently through the use of technology
  • Coached Domain Directors, Program Managers and Portfolio managers to improve the workflow into the domains and teams
  • Increased speed of planning and delivery by ~20%
  • Increased employee engagement and retention by ~15%
  • Increased customer satisfaction with product by ~20%

eSERVICES MANAGER

Curtin University
11.2012 - 08.2013
  • Lead the team responsible for the entire student related online portfolio (business critical applications), including budget accountability
  • Increased portfolio visibility and transparency, department accountability and engagement with senior management
  • Enabled fast reliable product design and delivery

GLOBAL PROJECT LEAD

Microsoft
10.2011 - 05.2012
  • Planned and lead global projects within Microsoft International as per fiscal year priorities
  • Conducted business analyses and stakeholder workshops, translated the results into prioritised business requirements and impacts
  • Identified areas of improvement and proposed potential solutions, then worked with global teams to ensure timely and costly delivery
  • Received an "Impact Recognition" for creating measurable business value (increased efficiency in financial processing)

CONSULTANT AND PROJECT LEAD - TALENT ACQUISITION GROUP

Nokia
06.2010 - 10.2011
  • Helped build a vision and strategy, and implement the RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) model to bring it to its full maturity
  • Lead end-to-end value add projects across Nokia’s HR function
  • Managed recruitment vendors, including facilitation of monthly board meetings

PROJECT LEAD / SERVICE DELIVERY EXPERT

PeopleSource Consulting
08.2007 - 02.2010
  • Lead redesign and rebuild of the PeopleSource website; supported IT projects and programs
  • Provided consulting and resourcing services to Nokia Music (Western Europe), including client development

PROJECTS AND EVENTS COORDINATOR/MANAGER

Bristol United Press
12.2005 - 07.2007
  • Managed and coordinated end-to-end multiple concurrent medium to large scale events and online marketing campaigns

Education

Bachelor of Science - Humanity Sciences

Charles University
Prague
01.2008

Skills

  • Digital and AI-driven transformation consulting
  • Program strategy and delivery
  • Strategic partnerships
  • Customer relations

Certification

  • McKinsey Executive Leadership Program
  • Leading SAFe 4.0 Practitioner Certification
  • LeSS Practitioner Certification
  • Human Centered Design Practitioner (Ideo) Certification
  • Organisation Change Management Practitioner
  • Scrum Master Certification
  • PRINCE2 Practitioner Certification
  • Various data, AI and IoT courses (Microsoft, Databricks), e.g.
  • AI Foundations
  • Data & AI Governance
  • GenAI & LLM on Databricks
  • AI Workplace Proficiency
  • Data & AI System Owner
  • Azure AI Certification AI-900

Accomplishments

  • Reorganised the D&AI Practice to enable growth and strategy execution; simplified strategy and sharpened our focus; increased pipeline by 4x (highest in 3 years); reset strategic partnerships to enable growth
  • Grew IoT Practice from $0.5M to $80M p/a (organic + inorganic growth)
  • Turned the overall performance of NSW Digital from the worst performing nationally to the top two territories on all metrics

Languages

English
Native or Bilingual
Czech
Native or Bilingual
German
Limited Working

Public Speaking

  • Trans Tasman Business Circle (Apr ‘25) - panel discussion on responsible AI and governance
  • Police Technology Forum (Mar ‘25) - AI solutions and AI governance in Policing
  • Microsoft AI Tour (Dec ‘25) - panel on AI perspective and lessons learnt from designing and implementing AI solutions
  • IoT State of Nation (Nov ‘24) - panelist on how to enable efficiency and productivity growth through data & AI
  • Various CxO round tables on various data related topics (organised by Microsoft, AWS, Telstra)
  • Local Government Professionals (Aug ‘24) - “Harnessing the Power of AI”
  • IMD’s Australia Management Transformation Forum (Jun ‘24) - “Perspective on Digital and AI Transformation”
  • Police Technology Forum (Mar ‘24) - Impact of AI in Fronline Policing, informa.com.au/event/conference/defence-security/police-technology-forum/
  • ADAPT Edge for Data (May ‘24, May '23) - Unlocking The Power Of Data, https://adapt.com.au/events/data-edge/speakers/
  • CIO Leaders Summit (May '23) - key note panel discussion, https://focusnetwork.co/cioleadersaustralia.com/sydney/
  • Podcast on how to derive business value out of data, and data democratisation - https://tel.st/BTM24

Timeline

HEAD OF DATA & AI

Telstra Purple
03.2023 - Current

CO-FOUNDER

Orli Technology Ltd
01.2023 - Current

HEAD OF IoT

Telstra Purple
10.2021 - 02.2023

HEAD OF DELIVERY, NSW DIGITAL

Telstra Purple
09.2019 - 01.2021

HEAD OF Data & AI, IoT, Digital (reporting to CTO)

Telstra Technology Services / Telstra Purple
01.2019 - Current

TRANSFORMATION DELIVERY PRINCIPAL

Telstra
08.2017 - 09.2019

DIGITAL MANAGER / ENGAGEMENT MANAGER

McKinsey & Company
05.2016 - 06.2017

AGILE PROJECT MANAGER / PROGRAM DELIVERY MANAGER

AMP
10.2015 - 04.2016

SENIOR AGILE PROJECT MANAGER

Commonwealth Bank of Australia
06.2014 - 09.2015

SCRUM MASTER

Bankwest (part of Commonwealth Bank Group)
08.2013 - 06.2014

eSERVICES MANAGER

Curtin University
11.2012 - 08.2013

GLOBAL PROJECT LEAD

Microsoft
10.2011 - 05.2012

CONSULTANT AND PROJECT LEAD - TALENT ACQUISITION GROUP

Nokia
06.2010 - 10.2011

PROJECT LEAD / SERVICE DELIVERY EXPERT

PeopleSource Consulting
08.2007 - 02.2010

PROJECTS AND EVENTS COORDINATOR/MANAGER

Bristol United Press
12.2005 - 07.2007

Bachelor of Science - Humanity Sciences

Charles University

Work Availability

monday
tuesday
wednesday
thursday
friday
saturday
sunday
morning
afternoon
evening
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Interests

Artificial Intelligence

Creating successful businesses

Gardening

Animals

Work Preference

Work Type

Full TimeContract WorkGig Work

Work Location

RemoteHybrid

Important To Me

Work-life balanceCareer advancementFlexible work hoursCompany CulturePersonal development programsWork from home optionPaid time offPaid sick leave401k matchStock Options / Equity / Profit Sharing
Lenka Bednarikova