Kim Austen Email & Phone Number

Cape Town, Wc, Za

Harlow, England, United Kingdom

I am thrilled to have the opportunity to follow my passion in learning and development to support AutoProtect’s goal to become an organisation with a culture of learning at its heart.I lead the Learning and Development and People Engagement related activity across the AutoProtect Group with a focus on developing talent within all functional teams throughout the Group.

Harlow, England, United Kingdom

Implement people strategy within the organisation,working alongside business leaders.Lead and develop the HR team Enforce best practice and champion our Culture and Values Establish our employer brand Work closely with business leaders and line management providing expert guidance on a variety of people matters Develop effective HR procedures and policies to reflect business aims and focus Advise on compliance and risk management issues Work within and apply key business drivers to people management strategies Ensure that managers and staff are fully aware of HR policies Introduce and drive change management initiatives

Johannesburg Area, South Africa

In my role as Scrum Master at MIP Holdings, I developed an appreciation for the creativity, attention to detail, focus and problem-solving skills of teams of actuaries, business process engineers, industrial engineers and software developers. I learned to understand the language inherent in the IT environment, as well as an appreciation of project management within an agile framework. This has been a time of reinventing myself at the beginning of Covid 19 in the only software engineering company focused on the verticals of financial services. I am positioned in the areas of Individual Life and Risk, and Group Life and Risk, with a focus on Tele-communications companies.I lead a team that design cutting edge administrative Progress software for the new business, policy maintenance, collections, claims, termination and compliance processes for financial services companies. In addition, the team designed and implemented online apps for the client. I have implemented Agile-Kanban practices within the team I work with the Product Owner, Programme Manager, Project Manager, Technical Architects, Actuaries, Client Systems Managers and Development Team to ensure 90% compliance with service level agreement and maintain throughput and cycle time under defined control limits.

Johannesburg Area, South Africa

In the creation, construction, set up and management of a farm, accommodation venue, distillery and wellness/conference centre, I cultivated resilience with the need to be solution focused amid unpredictable events and circumstances. I learned to trust those who worked with me, as well as to foster relationships within the community, and to truly stand together in times of natural disaster. In the management of events and conferences, I had gratitude for returning guests and corporate clients, and immense respect for a team who grew and developed alongside me. In running a family business in a remote location, I prized the importance of collaborating with key business partners and partnering with those who had the skills needed for our complete offering to our guests. While accomplishing the process of distillation, I honed the skill of how to distill one’s essence, to bring mischief and magic into the guest’s experience. I loved composing our uniquely crafted gin and food pairing, and workshops on how to distill and blend botanically infused gin. Designing one of the largest labyrinths in the Southern Hemisphere was soul food.In the R’new stable we also offered R’new Consulting Services. Here I worked closely with organizations such as Investec on exciting new projects

South Africa

Executive director, provided strategic guidance, monitored progress.Key individual role

Within the corporate space, I am lucky to have been able to gain extensive experience (24 years) in the banking, long term insurance, short term insurance and investments industry. I have had the opportunity to sell financial services products and to create and head up national training divisions to develop managers and sales forces in tied intermediary divisions, franchise divisions, broker services, short term insurance and investments. In partnership at all levels with operations departments I have gained comprehensive understanding of many of the facets of the sales, new business, product development, systems, process, underwriting and claims processes. I have created strategic business plans, managed budgets, managers and national teams. I served on Sales Exco, and a number of forums while working at Liberty Life and PPS Insurance Company. I relished in launching new initiatives, creating change, developing graduates, and working with businesses to succeed. I have loved recruiting and leading teams to achieve successful outcomes together. As an extra, in alignment with my values I brought employee wellness into PPS, too.

In the Distribution Academy I partnered with Broker Services in meeting four key challenges: coaching and mentoring, transformation, high performance culture and emotional intelligence. My team assisted Broker Services to drive relationship building, service and support, business building, legislation and complianceWe implemented development paths for broker consultants, brokers, broker assistants, leaders, facilitator / training consultants and the NQF credit aligned learning pathsWe focused on adding value to key customers such as ABSA, PPS, PSG, Hamiltons, NavigatorWe enjoyed developing product comparisons, and working with the corporate branding division to incorporate client segmentation philosophies.

Cfp, Financial Services

Ba (Hons) Hde, English, Psychology And Education