Sofiah Mackay Email & Phone Number

Vic, Australia

Think Impact is one of Australia’s most experienced social impact and sustainability advisory firms. Since 2014 they have supported, enabled and inspired clients from across business, government, philanthropy and the for-purpose sector to manage for better impact.Key areas of work include ESG, community housing and homelessness, First Nations led initiatives, infrastructure, education, employment, ageing, environment and government policy.Think Impact delivers tailored solutions to support clients to design their intended impact, develop ways to measure what happens, clearly communicate impact and improve their impact by implementing what has been learned.

A community development and enterprise development role focused on Tarneit, an area of Wyndham with limited physical and social infrastructure. Responsible for working with the community to facilitate the identification of employment creation ideas and support the development of small businesses.

Melbourne Area, Australia

The School for Social Entrepreneurs is the leading national provider of support for social enterprise growth and incubation. Responsible for the design, recruitment, coordination, facilitation and evaluation of 4-9 month long action learning programs for social entrepreneurs across Australia. Achievements in the role include:• Facilitation of 7 successful learning programs that developed the leadership, business skills and ventures of over 150 social entrepreneurs. • Opened up new markets in Brisbane and Perth, successfully recruiting students and running the 1st learning programs in those new locations.• Piloted and rolled out a new 4 month long Accelerator Program across Australia. Evaluations for programs I ran showed: 98% student retention96% of all participants agreed the program was value for money98% of all participants agreed it made them a more effective entrepreneur96% of all students agreed it enabled them to progress their venture and achieve key milestonesOn completion of the programs students social enterprises had collectively: benefited directly approximately 43,035 people; employed 112 staff; engaged 222 volunteers and generated $7,812,620 in revenue.

Papua New Guinea

Selected for a short-term assignment, this role focused on contributing to Australia’s policy dialogue with the Government of PNG and health sector partners around health system strengthening and workforce capacity development issues. I assistant led a team responsible for managing AusAID’s $100 million dollar health workforce and capacity building programs including managing finances, contractors, monitoring and evaluation and reporting. In this role, I successfully managed a complex $90 million dollar program and contract extension process and worked closely with PNG Government and Donor Partners to design a new approach to capacity development for the health sector. I successfully designed and facilitated Health Donor Partner meetings to build shared change agendas and AusAID staff workshops to foster greater coherence across the Australian Aid Program in PNG.

Canberra, Australia

In this cross agency policy, advisory, learning and knowledge management role, my responsibilities included: advisory input to the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the Australian Aid Program capacity development (CD) initiatives in the Asia Pacific Region; facilitation of a CD network / community of practice; design and delivery of CD learning events and oversight of the ‘Making a Difference – Practical Capacity Development Program’; commissioning of CD research and products to drive forward the agency’s policy and practice; the management of staff to source, contract and manage high quality CD and governance advisory services; and the maintenance of a CD information sharing site.

Canberra, Australia

Working in the Health and HIV Thematic Group, responsibilities in this role included: coordination of the 3rd Asia Pacific Ministerial Meeting on HIV; input to and development of Australian HIV policy; preparation of government briefings and support to Australia’s HIV Ambassador; management of the Asia-Pacific HIV Capacity Development Program; design of staff HIV mainstreaming training; and management of section finances.

Canberra, Australia

This was my first role in a Federal Government context and provided excellent orientation to working effectively in government. A program and contract management role, it supported the effective running of a grant program designed to address doctor workforce shortages. I was responsible for managing all contracts which involved: stakeholder liaison; managing grant payments; monitoring compliance; preparation of contract variations; managing and tracking $3.6 million of program finances; and monitoring and reporting on key program indicators.

Vanuatu

Working on a program aimed to reduce youth vulnerability to HIV, this position focused on establishing Oxfam’s in country office and the capacity development of local non-government partner organisations in the areas of HIV and STI education, program and project management, financial management, monitoring, evaluation, reporting and gender. The role involved working closely with the Vanuatu Department of Health, Donors, NGOs and youth groups in order to implement Vanuatu’s National HIV and STI plan.

Sydney, Australia

OIYP is a global network of young leaders and activists in over 150 countries working for positive and sustainable change in their communities. I was responsible for the management of this youth leadership program including: network facilitation and communication (in French, Spanish & English); the design, development and roll-out of an online skills and resource centre; the development, monitoring and evaluation of a small grants program; program and network policy development which included managing three reference groups (Youth, Indigenous & Skills); project specific fundraising; the recruitment, training and management of staff, interns and large teams of Volunteers; and the development and facilitation of the 8 day program for the 2nd OIYP event in Sydney, July 2004.

London, United Kingdom

As an Expedition Manager for WCE, the UK’s leading provider of leadership development and skills training programs for young people, I was responsible for managing school expeditions to Brazil and Peru. This involved coordinating the training of school teams, budgets, logistics, risk assessment, in-country liaison and all back-up procedures. Subsequently promoted to a School Liaison Manager, I designed, set up and ran a new sales and client management focused department. This involved building relationships with clients in the Education sector, regular promotional presentations to large groups and direct sales work. Key achievements included: securing £1.5 million in new business and leading a group of 16 students on a one month expedition to Argentina.

Graduate Diploma In Group Facilitation, Facilitation

Certificate Iv In Work Place Training And Assessment

Bachelor Of Arts (Modern Languages), French Language And Literature, Spanish Language And Literature

Final year of studies completed abroad at: Universite de Droit, d’Economie et des Sciences d’Aix Marseille III, Aix-en-Provence, France.

Education record