Christchurch, New Zealand
Meridian generates more than 30% of New Zealand’s electricity from its integrated chain of dams and power stations on the Waitaki River and from Manapōuri power station in Southland, the largest hydro power station in New Zealand, and from five wind farms around the country.
This electricity generated comes from 100% renewable sources – water and wind. Meridian are New Zealand’s largest electricity generator; and, through the Meridian and Powershop brands, they supply electricity to more than 270,000 customers – homes, businesses and farms all over the country. The Retail business is responsible for providing marketing, sales, customer service and operational support to Meridian’s Retail customers.
July 2007 – December 2009
Responsible for establishing and managing the Retail Project Management Office (PMO), leading a team of Advisors and Project Managers and operating with an annual project investment of $30m. The PMO ensured continuous business value through the delivery of optimal strategic solutions, enabled by providing expert people, guidance and support on all matters relating to project delivery and other activities.
It was widely acknowledged for its innovation, insight and disciplines, leading to its acknowledgment and use as a “best practice” example for the wider Meridian business and other external organisations.
2006 – 2007
At Meridian we developed a complete toolkit for running projects. Our methodology was predominantly PMI / Waterfall based but we also offered Agile and utilised a number of the PRINCE2 best practice methods.
My team created templates, processes and frameworks to ensure the project managers knew what was expected of them. These were easy to locate via a dedicated wiki site. Rachel supported the rolling business plan and helped prioritise the portfolio based on strategic alignment. She initiated project health-checks and audits and implemented a portfolio management system for tracking & reporting project progress.
Developed a fit for purpose project management framework and delivery methodology. This included embedding project processes, templates, tools and governance structures to support project delivery and investment control.
Implemented benefit realisation guidelines & processes including a benefits tracking model to monitor planned benefit targets against forecast contributions and to pro-actively make recommendations or changes when these were heading off track. Co-ordination of benefit development from conception through to full realisation post implementation.
Established a project prioritisation framework used for aligning business strategies to projects outcomes.
Procured, designed and embedded a web-based project delivery tool (Sentient) that enabled centralisation of all project artefacts leading to greater quality and control over projects, reduced administration and advanced business intelligence.
Contributed to a corporate business strategy refresh and review. Provided project management and cost to serve analysis to achieve concise economic modelling, setting the scene for a transformation roadmap and detailed work-stream and campaign launch.
Engaged in and delivered quality assurance reviews (internal and external), to enhance momentum and transparency of projects. This was aimed at embedding correct disciplines and identifying opportunities to accelerate progress through best practice project management.
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