Therese Raft Email & Phone Number

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

I lead a small and amazing team helping to communicate the vital work our RFDS people do in their local communities, connect our people to each other and the vision for RFDS, and drive operational and fundraising results through an integrated and creative approach across internal communications, media, social media and digital marketing.

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

One good thing out of COVID and lockdown was the ability and flexibility to volunteer at my daughter's school as an ethics teacher. Set up by The Ethics Centre, Primary Ethics works with children to think critically about every day situations. It's an amazing program and my Friday ethics class is an absolute highlight of the week.

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Throughout 2022 I've contributed to the AFR's Special Reports sections, covering a wide variety of topics from clean energy through to artificial intelligence and executive education.

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

I provide strategic corporate communications and issues management advice to a wide range of clients from across the professional services, technology, finance and property sectors.

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Sydney, Australia

Working collaboratively with Grant Thornton leaders, and the wider marketing team, I help to bring our expertise to life through thought leadership, media, social media and internal comms. Telling the one story in many different ways helps to build advocacy – and supports all of our people, from the grads to the partners, to better advise and connect with our clients.To date, I've advised and prepared our leaders for media engagements and parliamentary enquiries, established a new webinar series, managed and co-authored numerous reports with our industry leaders including the Mid-Sized Business Report and a number of aged care reports, and set up the firm's first internal webinar series.For our role as the Administrator for The Ralan Group, a national property developer that went to VA in mid-2019, I created a process where we proactively engaged with media to stem the flow of incoming media requests. In the space of 6 months we received 250 pieces of coverage here and overseas – with a potential reach of 286m people. This approach meant that our spokesperson could focus on providing briefings to the AFR and The Australian. We were also featured to in two indepth stories on the ABC.A highlight has been the communications campaign surrounding COVID-19. With many of our clients dismayed at the range and complexity of support available, we embarked on a campaign to interpret and collate all the information clients could need to make the right decisions for their business. In the space of one month (6 March - 16 April) we: - Generated over 19.5k views of our dedicated COVID hub - representing an 80% increase in users for the same period last year. - More than a threefold increase in subscribers to our communications compared to the previous month.- 41% open rate for email communication to an audience of 7,000, with an average 10.2% click through rate.- COVID social media posts saw an increase in engagement of 85%m with a 100% increase in post clicks.

Sydney

Towards the end of my time at Arup, I led a team of four people - directly and indirectly - working across the website, PR, social media and digital marketing in support of our offices in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. I was integral in the development and roll out of our first foray into integrated marketing campaigns aligned with our sponsorship of the World Science Festival in Brisbane in March 2017 which profiled our burgeoning energy business and our local and international leaders. Year long communications activity, alongside business development, resulted in increased coverage, more website hits and, importantly, more work. Very proud to be part of the team responsible for the ongoing growth of the Arup brand in Australia. Beaton Research shows prompted awareness of Arup has gone up from 78% in 2012 to 88% in 2017 - a great result in a five year period.I developed and rolled out various ‘best practice’ training modules to help our people be more effective spokespeople, and to be more adept at using social media as a business development tool. The social media training developed in our region was later adapted for a global audience.I tested new ways to use our advertising budget, using advertorial and special reports to enhance the profile of our leaders. One of our articles led to an opportunity with the Swiss Embassy, another generated a speaking spot at the AFR National Energy Summit.I worked closely with our global online team to understand the Australasia marketplace and developed and rolled out the local strategy to embrace the new arup.com; a radical shift from the old platform requiring significant stakeholder engagement on the ground, as well as the successful integration of content from various sites onto the one platform.Finally, I led the introduction of marketing automation - providing a region wide approach to our client communications. Taking cues from B2C - but applied with a B2B approach.

Sydney, Australia

I worked closely with the NSW office, regional teams and our graphic designers to build brand and win work through collateral development, award submissions, media relations, advertising, sponsorship, speaking opportunities and events.A large part of my role was to work closely with the BD Manager and the Office Leaders on the development and roll out of our go-to-market strategy, including positioning with priority clients and projects. I also had national responsibility for the social infrastructure portfolio and worked closely with the Health, Education and Government portfolios to build brand awareness around the Australasia region.Always looking for new ways to collaborate, I created the Arup light walk for Vivid Sydney. Our own lighting designers, alongside the creators of other lighting installations would be visited by groups of 10 - 15 people every 15 minutes for two hours on one of the darkest and coldest days of the year to talk about the lighting concept. This proved so popular that Arup continued to run these for many years.

Grapeshot is Macquarie Uni's student publication. As the Editor in Chief, I oversaw the editorial content for the magazine, liaised with contributors and directed a magazine team of six people to drive readership and reader contribution. This role included management of budgets and distribution, and required extensive consultation with the University, student council and an independent editorial review board. I also set up and managed social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, as well as a website run through the WordPress platform.Before leaving the magazine, I worked closely with an external consultancy reviewing the future of the magazine. I put forward a successful business case to grow the magazine to include not only a monthly magazine, but also a fortnightly newspaper with separate processes, budgets and dedicated teams for both publications.

Corporate and media relations, and award submission writing, with particular focus on professional services. Clients included ASX listed recruitment firm Chandler Macleod Group, St.George Bank, TressCox Lawyers, Arup, PKF (now BDO), Luxottica and Foundation of Australian Agricultural Women (FAAW).As an Account Manager for Chandler Macleod Group, I worked closely with the company on profile building for senior executives across the country. Two executives were secured as regular guests on high profile business television network, Sky Business News to comment on employment figures - a first of its kind at the time, although it's far more commonplace now.For pro-bono client, Foundation of Australian Agricultural Women (FAAW), I provided account management, story development and media liaison. In the previous five years, FAAW received no coverage, however between April and September 2010, FAAW achieved over a dozen articles, including a full page profile on the President in leading Australian business magazine, BRW.

North Sydney

Corporate and media relations for clients including PKF (now BDO), Harmers Workplace Lawyers, ASX listed recruitment firm Chandler Macleod Group, URS and Luxottica.Working with corporate advisory and accounting firm, PKF (now BDO) to assist in the development of PKF’s brand position and generate news and thought leadership around announcements from ATO with particular emphasis on small business news outlets and journalists.As Account Manager for Harmers Workplace Lawyers, I worked with senior partners to achieve widespread coverage on many workplace issues, including discrimination, redundancies and confidentiality.

Sydney, Australia

Corporate, public policy and media relations for clients including ASX 200 company Fortescue Metals Group, Woolworths, British Airways, Project Management Institute (PMI) Sydney Chapter and Models of Success and Sustainability (MOSS).Account Manager for ASX 200 company Fortescue Metals Group, including media liaison, organisation of media briefings and road shows. Positioned Fortescue Metals Group as Australia's ‘third force in iron' and facilitated a noticeable shift in media perceptions of Fortescue. Fortescue's share price $4.62 when the company engaged Edelman. Fortescue's share price reached a peak of $41.75 while on retainer. Account Manager for PMI Global Asia Pacific Congress, including liaison with stakeholders in the US and Asia. Conducted media training for US CEO on Australian media and secured interview with Sky Business News on the pipeline and opportunities for large projects around the world.Part of Woolworths National Drought Action Day team in 2007 and 2008, where national supermarket chain donated a full day’s profit to the Country Women’s Association for farming families affected by drought. Media liaison with metro and regional print and radio, successful in attaining third party endorsement from farming associations. More than $4.7m (57% over expected target) provided to farming families. Generated more than 470 pieces of print, 11.31 hours of radio news and talkback (average 20 minutes/day) and 1.67 hours of television (average 1.56 minutes/item). The campaign won the PRIA Award for CSR Program of the Year 2007.On the organising committee for Models of Success and Sustainability (MOSS), pro-bono client encouraging uptake of CSR in Australian organisations. Liaison with media, copywriter for MOSS articles and international speaker liaison.

Ma Arts, Creative Writing

Ba Arts, International Communications, Media, International Communication, Cultural Studies

Activities and Societies: Global Leadership Program, Macquarie Mentor, Alumnus from the 9th International Youth Leadership Conference