Emma Preston

Experience

• 

  Volleyball Bay of Plenty

  Oct 2005 - Aug 2008

  Event coordination of the NZ Secondary School Volleyball Championships including: marketing of the event, working with and generating sponsors, working with the local council, volunteer management, liaising with schools and venue managementFull management of all aspects of local weekly volleyball competitions including: marketing of the competitions, working with local council, managing referees, media contact, writing and releasing communications, attraction and retention of sponsors/teams Show less

  • CoachForce Officer

    May 2007 - Aug 2008

  • Operations Manager

    Oct 2005 - Apr 2007
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  SMC Events Group

  Sept 2008 - May 2009

  Event Coordinator

  Contract role before moving to Switzerland.Coordination and management of 150 retailers for Ellerslie Flower Show including supporting sales of sites, on site event logistics, sales support, data management, communications including regular updates and newsletters for retailersEvent coordination for the NZ Beach Volleyball Tour including sponsor liaison, event set up, website management (including an upgrade) and international player managementEvent administration and on site support for Weetbix Kiwi Kids Triathlon and the Auckland Teddy Bears Picnic Show less

• 

  Biogen Idec

  Apr 2010 - May 2014

  Reason for leaving: Relocation to New ZealandOwnership of the complete Europe and Canada Organization and Human Resource Planning process including: communication, event management, process improvement and information managementDrive and support of the Performance Management Process across Europe and Canada through the HR Business Partners, managing communication across the geography, creating presentations to explain and “sell” process for HR team’s useEmployee Engagement Survey process ownership for Europe and Canada including planning European response to results and working with HR Leads in country to analyze and make recommendations on actions following the surveySupport the European lead on various Organizational Design activities. Including: process improvements, advice on technology, data analysis, communication support, preparation of presentations for European Leadership TeamOwnership and management of the central training budget for Europe (1 million CHF) Show less Responsible for planning, coordination and administration for Biogen Idec’s senior management Leadership Development Programs (approximately 90 people in program at a time)Marketing, communication, planning, management, coordination, administration and evaluation of all on site employee soft skill development trainings in International HQSupporting roll out of European-wide development and cultural change trainingsSupporting Organizational Review process; meeting management, template coordination, function-geography interface support, member of process design teamOwner of workforce modeling tool for Europe for support functions (HR, IT, Legal, Public Affairs, Finance, Compliance); ensuring accuracy and coordination Budget management of a 1 million CHF budget; Purchase Order creation, supplier set up, invoice processing, payment queries, provision of ad hoc updates and reports, support of creation of yearly budget requestsSupportive function for department including: presentation preparation, team training planning, reporting and analysis, meeting support, process clarification/improvement, materials purchase, creation of training support aids, maintenance of SharePoint site, research, database maintenance, writing contracts, surveys and newsletter articles Show less

  • People and Organizational Development Sr Associate II

    Oct 2013 - May 2014

  • Leadership Development and Human Resources Associate

    Apr 2010 - Sept 2013
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  Xplore - your web agency

  Nov 2014 - Sept 2016

  Project Manager

  Reason for leaving: Relocation to HamiltonEnsure that website projects are delivered on time, on specification and on budget Build and maintain client relationships including technical support and ongoing education via training and writing monthly blogsLiaise and coordinate with internal and external SEO, Copywriting, Design and Development teams to gather and define business requirements and implement website projectsDevelop highly detailed technical project documentation, create timelines and track progress of multiple projects simultaneously From June to September 2016 I was a remote contractor to Xplore working predominantly on SEO optimisation work. Show less

• 

  Dynamo6

  Sept 2016 - Jul 2018

  Digital Project Manager

  Reason for leaving: Relocation to Hong KongManage all aspects of project and service delivery operations, ensuring there is a successful outcome for the customers and company at all times, on time, budget and to customer expectations whilst meeting all contractual obligations.Continual optimisation on delivery, working towards maximum utilisation and productivity of technical teams through efficient management of team schedules, projects, and service contracts.Be the customer experience and success champion across the organisation, working with different teams to improve communications with our customers during service delivery and at other times through customer portals, reporting, newsletters, blogs, and social channels.Build relationships with key stakeholders and customer accounts, including providing support for the sales team as required.Develop and manage internal documents and process standards including creation and maintenance of company intranet. Show less

• 

  ExpressVPN

  Oct 2018 - Jul 2023

  [I held this role simultaneously with my Project Management leadership role]Closely collaborating with the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) we delivered various initiatives including: a new cross-functional team-based org approach, structured career (growth) paths, quarterly planning and feedback processes, onboarding improvements. I was the CMO’s sounding board for strategic direction, structural changes and staffing issues and helped prioritise their time and focus - acting as gatekeeper, or on their behalf when appropriate. I led the creation and execution of processes and related communications for new team formations and changes in resource allocation across Marketing, and represented marketing views on related topics company-wide. Show less [I held this role simultaneously with my Chief of Staff role]As the department lead I continued to drive and shape our Project Management approach across the company, improving and refining processes in close collaboration with a wide variety of senior stakeholders. We expanded beyond Marketing and started managing projects for finance, HR and our c-suite. I drove the execution of our project management hiring plan, successfully expanding the department to 12, including growing 3 additional people into line managers. I was responsible for setting expectations, measuring results, assigning responsibilities, coaching, training, motivating, and guiding the career and skill growth of all project managers. Show less As the lead Project Manager I was proud that we delivered ExpressVPN’s rebranding project on time, successfully launching the new brand simultaneously across client apps, our own and partner websites, plus all of the associated comms and PR. In preparation for this, I also worked on the project to transition the expressvpn.com website from hand-coded pages to a Content Management System (Contentful).During this time I continued to grow the project management function, hiring 3 additional project managers. I was a people manager of both individual contributors and other managers within Project Management, Video Production and Localization Teams (who I interim-managed for various periods of time). Show less

  • Head of Program Management

    Oct 2022 - Jul 2023

  • Marketing Chief of Staff

    Mar 2021 - Oct 2022

  • Project Management Lead

    Jan 2021 - Jul 2022

  • Senior Project Manager

    Feb 2020 - Jan 2021

  • Marketing Project Manager

    Oct 2018 - Feb 2020
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  Chaos Theory

  Nov 2023 - now

  Chief of Staff
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  Chief of Staff Network

  Sept 2024 - now

  Member