Helen Lyons is a senior executive with 25 years experience in Strategic and Operational Leadership including Human Resources Management.
Helen started her career in the Superannuation and Investment Banking Sector where she specialised in managing superannuation portfolios, including those of Lend Lease and AMP, with a value of up to $500M funds under management and serving 500,000 customers. Helen was then invited by AMP to lead a significant change management program which involved the merger of 13 internal Super Funds and to establish a Human Resources Transactional Shared Services Model aligned to the Global Human Resources Strategic plan for their 11,000 employees. This model became the Best Practice model used by the Australian Graduate School of Management in their Strategic Human Resource Management Program.
Helen has held the role of Human Resources Director of the University of Western Sydney for over four years and is passionate and committed to her work at the University. She has been instrumental in assisting the University in becoming a leading example of teaching and research in the tertiary sector in Australia. Helen has brought her many years of commercial strategic experience into action by aligning the University’s strategic goals with those of her internal team. She soon rolled out another HR Shared Services model that was tailored for her new client base. Utilising best practice Human Resource principles, Helen has helped build a sustainable partnership between the University’s ‘core business’, it’s people, it’s external stakeholders and the wider community.
Her commitment to diversity has also ensured that UWS is forging ahead in Indigenous Employment and Engagement. Helen thrives in dynamic and creative environments where her leadership skills are fully engaged in effecting positive and critical change. She employs her strong, coaching, team-building, and influencing skills, to inspire people to be the best they can be and possesses a unique blend of pragmatism and optimism. Helen has forged strong relationships with many networks and industries and is widely known as a “people connector”, assisting her peers and other people within UWS to make valuable business and community links. In 2009 the Australian Human Resources Institute acknowledged the HR team in UWS as finalists in two categories for their awards, People Management and Diversity, this was the first time a University had achieved this recognition and it was for the Transformation of HR.
