Helen commenced her career in the State public sector where she held a number of key senior roles including as a Cabinet Secretary, and Senior Adviser, Intergovernmental Relations Division, Department of the Premier and Cabinet, and Adviser, Japan, where she worked closely with National and Prefectural Government organizations and private sector businesses, particularly in Tokyo, Okayama and Himeji. Whilst in the Premier’s Department, Helen was appointed to several high-level projects such as representing the South Australian government on Japan-related committees and forums, and liaising with key business and community contacts such as McKinsey and Co. (where she had a 6-month secondment), BHP, Australia Post and Mitsubishi Motors; and as Executive to the inaugural SA Centenary of Federation Committee. Helen also held an advisory role at the Legal Services Commission of South Australia. After successfully undertaking these leading roles, she was appointed as the inaugural Executive Director, South Australian Public Administration Industry Training Advisory Body (SAPAITAB), and developed and ran the Body for over 7 years.
Helen has also had over 20 years connection to corporate education. This has included her Academic profile at The University of Adelaide, and also The Flinders University of South Australia and the University of South Australia. At these institutions she has lectured and taught in the Doctoral, Masters and bachelor courses, covering such topics as Advanced Studies in Leaders and Leadership, HRM, Management and VET. As well she has been a university administrator, an Academic and strategic adviser for innovation and commercialization, Academic Director for the Master of Entrepreneurship, a senior assessor in Public Policy and Management and Lecturer-in-Charge, and a Doctoral assessor, and served as a representative on Academic Senate of The Flinders University. Her research interests encompass a wide range of topic, and she is an internationally published author and enjoys writing and editing.
In 2002, Helen established her own consulting business as the Founder, and Principal Consultant of The Paige Group. The Paige Group’s mission is to ‘connect people, ideas and processes for success’. In this role, Helen provides strategic advice and has undertaken a series of successful consultancies at a national and local level, (clients including Coffey International; Santos; Woods Bagot; Flinders University and DFEEST).
As well as founding and operating her consultancy business, Advance Knowledge Networks (AKN), Helen has also founded and developed two other ‘start up’ businesses, TimeMaker a business concierge service, and Fun.Food.Focus, a unique training and education process for teambuilding and other corporate training, using 'hands on' cooking and food preparation ‘developing people and teams through cooking’. After developing, planning and implementing ‘from scratch’, this new and exciting concept to improve corporate teambuilding for participating corporates, receiving many positive testimonials about the impact of the programs for the thousands of participating corporates and individuals, Helen packaged and sold the business on the open market in 2014.
Here’s what one of her major clients said…
Bank SA
"What a wonderful team building exercise! We were fortunate to engage Helen Paige and her team to work with 54 of our staff during our annual sales and service conference. Helen and her team of skilled chefs and assistants provided a range of terrific recipes for our group to create. Working in teams and armed with chef’s hats, aprons, clean hats, knives and ingredients, away they went. Approximately two hours later, the group was enjoying their gorgeous and tasty creations. From a team work perspective, the activity was extremely successful. The group worked as 'group to do with meal preparation', and felt comfortable to attempt everything! The activity was fun, dynamic and engaging from the 'get go' until the first mouthful of food was consumed! We have used a variety of different team building activities over the last few years and this year's activity would have to be one of the highlights. To be able to go from reading a recipe [like interpreting a vision document] to eating the food created in teams [evidence of the vision being achieved] was strongly linked to the way we work in a banking sense and was most enjoyable."
Recently, as well as running her consultancy business Advance Knowledge Networks, (where she is seen as a subject expert in applied knowledge management), Helen has devoted more of her time to Board Directorships.
She is the long-standing Chair of Adelaide KM, a frequent presenter at local Knowledge Management and related international conferences, the author of various published papers on KM and business-related issues, and has been a columnist for The Advertiser and Weekend Australian newspaper and an editor on KM publications, an editor for the Australian Institute of Company Directors for the Company Director’s course, and a chapter editor for a forthcoming book on Knowledge Management, (South Africa).
She has a Doctorate of Education, Masters Degree in Policy and Administration, Bachelor of Laws, Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice, Degree in Social Sciences, and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
For more information about Dr Helen Paige, download the AKN Profile - Dr Helen Paige