Helen McKenna – Principal

Professional Background
Helen had a diverse career in the ACT and Australian Public Services. Her experience at senior levels included policy, operational and service delivery management roles in the ACT Chief Minister’s Department, and management of performance audit programs in the Australian National Audit Office. As a Senior Executive in Centrelink, she was responsible for performance audit, evaluation, business assurance, and risk management.

As a consultant, she specialises in governance, risk management, and business improvement.

Helen holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) and a Doctorate of Philosophy. She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management, and a member of the National Institute for Governance and the Australasian Evaluation Society.

Key Areas of Expertise

• Governance—accountability, assurance, performance measurement
  
• Strategic, business and operational planning
• Risk management
• Program evaluation
• Organisational review
• Facilitation of workshops and conferences, particularly for business planning and risk assessment
• Change management

Recent Consulting Assignments

• Various risk assessment projects for several APS agencies
• Review of governance arrangements for several organisational units
• Development of risk management strategies
• Development of governance arrangements for a Budget measure
• Development of an evaluation strategy for a major initiative
• Advice on the development of a quality assurance framework to ensure outlay integrity for a payment program
• Development and delivery of a training module on quality assurance
• Facilitation of business planning workshops for several APS agencies
• Facilitation of community consultations
• Facilitation of Commonwealth/State/Territory officials meeting
• Advice on policy implementation and program management reform
• Development of a change management strategy for new program management arrangements
• Delivery of training module — “Your Accountabilities as a Public Servant”
• Delivery of training module — “Project planning and management”
• Coaching graduates on design, development and implementation of a major strategic project, including industry consultations
• Service delivery modelling and development of policy implementation plans for Budget initiatives;
• Development and delivery of a training module on program implementation for the EL2 level;
• Evaluation of a trial Diploma-level training program;
• Program simplification — facilitation of workshops and revision of program logic and performance information for a whole-of-department program simplification exercise; and
• Review of department-wise program management arrangements.

Referees
Referee details can be provided on request.

Contact Details
Dr Helen McKenna, Principal, FyreConsulting
Ph: 02 4842 1142
Mob: 0437 309 864
Email: helen@fyreconsulting.com.au