EXPERTise

Passionate and commercially focused, I am a dynamic leader who brings a sense of fun and creativity into everything I do.  My professional journey has provided me with diverse and comprehensive business experience across various attractions and industries, whilst operating in complex environments managing multimillion-dollar businesses.

 

Current & past consulting clients include:

• Destination Phillip Island

• zoOceanarium Group 

• Canopy Strategic Partners 

• Great Ocean Road Coast and Park Authority 

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Feasibility, Strategic & Operational Planning

Successfully opening a new attraction requires a blend of skills, experience and character traits.  Strategic planning and project management skills ensure seamless execution within defined timelines and budgets, along with operations expertise to ensure everything runs smoothly when doors open. Additionally, an entrepreneurial spirit, unwavering determination, a sense or fun and a passion for creating memorable experiences are essential.  I have been honoured to be part of opening some of the world's best attractions, including: 

•  The St Louis Aquarium at Union Station (1 million visitation yearly), The Green Planet Dubai (600,000 visitation yearly), The Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo (1,300,000 visitation yearly), Yas Waterworld Abu Dhabi (700,000 visitation yearly) and Melbourne Aquarium (700,000 visitation yearly) .

 

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Product & Experience Development

Developing new experiences and products is crucial for attractions to remain competitive, attract new and repeat visitation, and drive sustainable growth.  Understanding visitor trends, identifying unmet needs, and brainstorming innovative concepts are all key steps in the development journey.  It's also important to conduct thorough market research, analysing visitor feedback, identifying emerging trends and developing a realistic budget and profit projection.  Over my career, I have developed, tested and implemented many products and experiences for varied attractions, including:

• The Green Planet including 'A night in the rainforest' and their animal adoption program, both a financial success and still part of the experience offerings today. 

• ‘The Explorers Pack’ for The Green Planet Dubai with an annual revenue generation of over $56,000 USD, and only initial investment of $5,000USD, achieving  profit margins of over 80% and increasing guest length of stay by 10 - 15minutes 

• Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo, first internship & volunteer program, aquarium membership program, incentive plan and bringing all Emaar Retail assets together to create The Dubai Mall Summer Camp (Time Out Dubai’s ‘Best Summer Camp’ 2010) 

• Phillip Island as the first sensory inclusive island in the world, gaining sponsorship and support from Kulture City to certify up to 50 businesses.  I have also partnered with Destination Phillip Island to improve access and inclusion for businesses across the island.

• Leading the Phillip Island Nature Parks team during the impacts of COVID-19 and developing critical initiatives focusing on financial sustainability, health & wellbeing and guest experience. In 2021 the Nature Parks team were winners of  VTIC Tourism Awards: City of Melbourne Innovation & Resilience Award for Regional Victoria for Penguin Live TV, which reach millions of people across the world during lockdowns. 

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Business Operations, Efficiency & Process Improvement 

Streamlined processes, reduced costs, and improved efficiency can lead to increased visitor satisfaction and reduced operational costs. Efficient workflows, embedded processes and data-driven decision making drives continuous improvement and sets everyone up for success.  Whether it's opening a new facility or leading a seasoned attraction, this is a critical component of a successful business. Some examples of how I have achieved this include:  

• The review of operational costs at Park Trek Walking Holidays, auditing food costs and provision processes and procedures. The results of the review resulted in a decrease (approximately 10%) in costs per person, per tour (without impacting guest experience)

• Whilst at Yas Waterworld Abu Dhabi, I developed the processes and procedures for the world's first rollercoaster integrated into a waterpark. A pre-opening and operational project, which included developing the guest journey, training manuals and ensuring safety & compliance

• Establishing zoOceanarium Group’s operation, finance and recruitment procedures with the company tripling in size over five years

• Project Sponsor of a new POS/ticketing for Phillip Island Nature Parks.  This involved overseeing the project scope & tender, engaging with potential suppliers, benchmarking and reference checks, leading project steering meetings with stakeholders including board members and ensuring overall compliance and success of the project.  

• Leading Hili Fun City in Al Ain, UAE, implementation of POS/ticketing (from manual system).  This involved outlining requirements, testing & acceptance, developing procedures, staff training and support.

A seasoned senior leader, I've also led large complex operational teams across multi-sites, department functions and attraction types.  Leading over 150 staff within aquariums, waterparks, theme parks, science centres, nature parks and historic sites, with some facilities attracting over 1.3 million visitors a year. 

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Team Learning & Development

Embedding learning and development into your attraction or business is a strategic investment that drives innovation, productivity, and overall success. By nurturing a culture of learning, we can enhance employee skills and knowledge, boost engagement and motivation, promote creativity, attract top talent, and provide exceptional guests experiences.  I'm a big fan for this very reason, and as such, lead organisations with this in mind, resulting in some great outcomes:

• The Green Planet Dubai pre-opening scope was the development and implementation of induction for front of house staff, many having limited zoo or aquarium experience.  'Explorers Program' was a detailed program covering topics such as introduction to biology, guest experience and presentations; including basic animal handling.  Staff quickly became experts and passionate ambassadors for the thousands of plants and animals they represented.  The 'Explorers Program' was recognised globally in 2017 as WINNER IAAPA Brass Rings Awards: Best Innovation in a Training Program.​

• Partnering with People & Culture team at Phillip Island Nature Parks , we developed and audited all staff training & development, to ensure not only compliance training was up-to-date, but develop a clearly defined pathway for learning opportunities for each role.

 

Financial Management & Planning 

Commercial success is the cornerstone of a thriving tourism attraction, enabling you to fulfil your purpose and deliver a memorable guest experience. Financial planning & sustainability ensures the attraction can maintain operations, invest in infrastructure and facilities, participate in conservation or community initiatives and provide the best environment for your visitors and team. My strategic, analytical, financial and business expertise, make me well-equipped to contribute valuable insights and guide organisations, with some examples below: 

• Developed and implemented pricing review for all tourism experiences at Phillip Island Nature Parks (product pricing, tour operator commissions and product offering), establishing higher yield and revenue despite decreased capacity.  Within one year post-pandemic, the Nature Parks was again financially sustainable. As General Manager for Tourism I was accountable for the tourism portfolio P&L, with over $15m in revenue yearly.

• Whilst Executive Director for zoOceanarium Group, I developed & managed company and client P&L/ budgets with revenue of over $40 million.  This including establishing pre-opening budgets outlining costs and projected attendance.

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 Visitor Research & Guest Experience 

Visitor research and guest experience reviews are invaluable tools for tourism attractions to understand visitor expectations, identify areas for improvement, opportunities for new product & experiences, develop sales & marketing plans and enhance the overall visitor experience. By gathering feedback through surveys, interviews or online reviews, attractions can make data-driven decisions that plan for the future. 

• A Phillip Island Nature Parks board priority was developing a Visitor Research Strategy to gain key insights into the impacts of COVID and help drive business decisions during recovery.  I led the development of the Nature Parks first ever strategy which not only outlined how and why we would collect data, but provided clear pathways the data would be used, including within sales & marketing plans

• Developing Phillip Island Nature Parks Sales Plan, aligning with our organisation and visitor research strategies to ensure our efforts, energy and investment directly matched our overall objectives and setting clear performance goals.  2022 & 2023 Sales Plan goals were met and a monthly sales meeting was introduced with key stakeholders across the business to ensure we celebrated success and remained focused on our targets.  

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AWARDS

• 2023 Blooloop Top 50 Zoo & Aquarium Influencers 

• 2021 WINNER Tourism Awards: VTIC City of Melbourne Innovation & Resilience Award for Regional Victoria

• 2017 WINNER IAAPA Brass Rings Awards: Best Innovation in a Training Program

• 2022 SILVER Tourism Awards: Ecotourism

• 2021 BRONZE Tourism Awards: Ecotourism

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COMMITTEES 

• IAAPA Asia Advisory Board (International Association of Amusement Parks & Attractions) 2023 - Current 

• Lost Dogs Home Finance and Audit Committee 2023 - Current

• Phillip Island Business Network Committee Member 2021 - 2023​

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PUBLIC SPEAKING

• 2024 IAAPA Asia Expo Bangkok: Fun For All Unlocking the Power of Accessibility & Inclusion

• 2024 IAAPA Asia Expo Bangkok: Animal Interaction Trends & Guest Expectations 

• 2023 IAAPA Asia Leadership Summit Vietnam: Why Accessibility is Good for Your Guests & Business

• 2023 Accessible Tourism Conference Gold Coast: Making the Impossible Possible in Adventure Tourism

• 2018 IAAPA Conference Orlando: Women in Leadership

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EDUCATION 

• Diploma of Business (Human Resources), Southbank Institute Brisbane, AUS 2007

• Certificate IV Assessment and Workplace Training, NMIT Preston, AUS 2003