Sarah is a director of Information Leadership Consulting, New Zealand's pre-eminent consulting organisation in the areas of information, records and knowledge management. She is co-author of 'Flapping to Flying: Transforming I.T. into Information Leadership' which continues to sell strongly more than 2 years after its first release.

Sarah has consulted to over 30 public and private sector organisations providing advice, plans and project support that really work.  Sarah's clients emphasise her robust and technically grounded approach coupled with her ability to rapidly understand the unique characteristics of each organisation.

A popular speaker and workshop presenter, Sarah covers topics as diverse as: Change Management; Thinking Strategically About Information Management; The Place of Records Management in your Knowledge Management Strategy; Integrating EDRMS with Core Business Processes; Email and Information Management.

Sarah holds a B.A. (Hons) First Class in History and Political Studies and an M.A. (Distinction) in Political Studies.

Her first information management role was as an Archivist at Archives New Zealand.

Her strong research background enabled her to then gain experience in local government in both policy analysis and corporate planning.

Information management skills and local government experience made her  successful in the role of Information Manager at Dunedin City Council where she was responsible for GIS, Document Management, Internet, Intranet and Land Information.  She followed this with a similar role at the Christchurch City Council.  

 

The Real Story

Travel was a theme of my early life culminating in arrival in New Zealand in time to do my last year of schooling at Kawerau College.  Prior to this I'd attended various primary and secondary schools in England, Wales, South Africa and Zambia making for a diverse but, at times, unsettled childhood.

Extremely risk averse, once I arrived in New Zealand I decided that I would no longer travel and didn't leave the country (except for short trips to Fiji and the Gold Coast) until I hit my mid-thirties.

In fact, pre-32 I was conscientious, hard-working and (mostly) very conservative.  Since 32 I am still hard-working and conscientious (of course!) but have been trying many new things some of which have stuck and some of which haven't - no matter:

• Learning to swim (reasonable success - now trailing off due to lack of practice)
• Snorkelling (relates the above)
• Weight training
• Ethics and philosophy
• Business management (through necessity)
• Learning French - definately didn't stick!  Maybe I need to schedule another trip to France to get motivated.  I borrowed language CDs from the library and listened to them a couple of times in the car but no go here really despite being the proud holder of a French 'O' level.
• Story- telling: particularly in relation to workshops and delivering papers.  I continue to look for opportunities to improve and practice here.
• Dog owning
• Keeping a journal
• Neuro -Linguistic Programming
• Hypnosis and Self-Hypnosis
• Drawing
• Blogging
• Classical music
• Juggling (very sticky)
• Step-parenting (no choice on this one!)
• Connecting with family in the U.K including regular visits
• Travel - Nepal, India, Vietnam, Bali, Thailand, Chile, Argentina, U.S. (New York, San Diego), U.K., France
• I still can't get myself interested in gardening despite best efforts but I would love to have a nice garden with inviting lawns.