Sarah has worked in the public sector in both the United Kingdom and New Zealand for over 10 years, and has a passion for using taxpayer funding effectively especially within Government organisations. Whilst working in the United Kingdom’s public sector, Sarah worked on the performance of large pension schemes as well as related parent company performance, to enable the funding of their pension scheme.  This included liaising with Trustee Boards and senior management for some of the largest pension schemes in Europe .  

Prior to working in the public sector Sarah worked in the financial sector for over 5 years, mainly in the United Kingdom.  Risk analysis skills were gathered in fast moving environments within Citibank, AMP and Schroders, which taught Sarah the importance of evaluating all possible risks and then mitigating or discarding if necessary in the final decision. Sarah fully understands the importance of listening to personal instincts and then gathering facts to back these up.

Sarah has built relationships during her career at all levels fromcasework staff that she has line managed, to Chief Executives and Chairs of Boards whom she has had to deal with regarding Pension Scheme issues or more recently in New Zealand as part of liasing with senior stakeholders driving change within some of the largest Government Ministries.Sarah believes successful relationship management of key stakeholders in the workplace, is one important way of helping to ensure your outcome is successfully completed.

Sarah has been involved in many change projects which were all about changing accepted strategies, policies and processes within an organisation to improve services provided to taxpayers or reduce costs; Sarah has been a project manager, business analyst, business consultant and super user. Sarah is very adaptable and can cope with a wide range of tasks and organisations. Sarah has worked extensively on reviewing existing business processes to understand how they function, where weaknesses exist and how change could be made to improve for efficiency or cost saving.

Educational Qualifications

• Bachelor of Commerce and Administration: Majoring in Marketing, Victoria University, completed in 2010
• PRINCE2: Foundation Level, School of Government in England, 2005
• National Certificate in Business: Majoring in Tourism, AUT, completed in 1993

Technical Skills

• Business analysis
• Business process improvement
• Change management
• Relationship management
• Workshop facilitation
• Project Management

Most likely to say…which one of these things is not like the other?

When not at work…to be seen heading for the airport on her next overseas trip.

Email - sarah.knowles@starfishconsuting.co.nz