Michael Thistlethwaite

Director, Performance Audit at Audit Office of New South Wales

Proven senior leader with the ability to establish and lead high performing multidisciplinary teams. Broad experience across performance auditing, program evaluation, portfolio, program and project management, organisational change, organisational strategy, risk management and governance as well as operational and strategic exposure to corporate services functions. Successfully delivered multi-million dollar projects driving strategic change and improving IT, Finance and HR services in addition to organisation-wide change programs incorporating industrial relations, culture, diversity, performance, productivity, learning and capability. Established strategic portfolio management and built project management capability in a professional services environment. Currently leading multiple teams to deliver performance audits of NSW Government agencies and local councils. Reviewing government programs to improve efficiency, effectiveness & value for money resulting in improved government performance and improved outcomes for NSW citizens. Reporting to Parliament to hold government to account for its use of public resources. In addition to experience in large multinational private sector organisations, have worked on projects across NSW state clusters and agencies - Health, Education, Transport, Stronger Communities, Industry, Planning & Environment, Customer Service, Premier and Cabinet as well as Local Government. Strong vendor and stakeholder management skills. Specialties: - Business strategy setting and delivery - Portfolio, program & project management - Organisational change management - Leading strategic change programs - Stakeholder management and strategic communications - Governance and risk management - Mentoring, coaching and leading people - Vendor management - Contracts, tendering and procurement - Business analysis, process improvement and business cases. Solid understanding, and demonstrated successful application of, PMBOK, Prince2, Agile, Lean Six Sigma and ITIL.