Karen is the Chief Operating Officer and Company Secretary at the National Australia Day Council. She is also a well-respected lawyer and has over 20 years’ experience in the legal industry working both in top tier practice at MinterEllison and in-house across a number of public and private sector organisations.
Karen has held a variety of senior legal and management roles throughout her career. Since joining the National Australia Day Council in 2018, Karen has:
- overseen all business operations including legal, finance, IT, human resources (HR);
- undertaken significant compliance, regulatory, financial, intellectual property, IT and governance reviews;
- engaged significantly with stakeholders including to work closely with the Communications and Marketing teams;
- prepared numerous budgets and streamlined income and expense reporting;
- implemented new cloud-based technology systems and processes;
- managed all aspects of HR operations including recruitment, training and development of codes of conduct and the Employee Handbook;
- fulfilled the legal obligations, duties, and responsibilities as an officer of the company, in accordance with the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth); and
- provided strategic legal, policy and management advice to the Chair, CEO and Board of Directors.
Karen’s comprehensive governance and procurement experience extends to providing strategic advice, preparing approach to market documentation and undertaking contract negotiations. She has developed numerous governance and compliance frameworks including policies, systems and protocols relating to conflicts, fraud, media, privacy, risk and WHS.
Karen embraces a customer service culture and as an experienced in-house adviser is always mindful to deliver high quality advice that is practical, achievable and outcome driven having regard to her client’s commercial imperatives.
Karen’s experience is complemented by qualifications across the areas of law, superannuation, governance, risk and compliance. More recently Karen has completed corporate and management courses through Harvard University and the Australian Institute of Company Directors.