Our team

Carla Brookes has over 20 years’ experience in stakeholder and community engagement, communications, marketing and event management. Carla offers a combination of communications and community engagement skills along with extensive strategic experience in providing stakeholder relations for NSW Government infrastructure projects.

Carla has spent the last ten years as a communication and community engagement specialist working on a variety of significant infrastructure projects at Sydney Metro, Transport for NSW, WaterNSW and UrbanGrowth NSW.

Her experience spans both government and contractor delivery for planning, procurement, detailed design and construction phases of projects, where she collaborates with Government and contractors at both senior executive and project team levels. She has worked on projects in light rail, metro rail, road, heavy rail, water, motorways and urban transformation sectors.

Managing engagement programs has given Carla broad experience in infrastructure projects in both urban and regional locations.  She has participated in coordination roles for joint ventures working with multiple contractors. She has intuitive managerial and planning skills to provide sound, creative solutions to communication issues through each stage of the project lifecycle.

Carla’s ability to manage various challenging project environments is demonstrated through her critical thinking, adaptable decision-making and ability to negotiate face to face conflict resolution.

Former Minister for Roads, Maritime and Freight Duncan Gay commented to media on 20 August 2015 at the opening of the $340 million Princes Highway Gerringong upgrade, saying “the one thing that summed up the project was the community relations”. In her role as Community Relations Manager, Carla welcomed this compliment, echoed by the former NSW Premier Mike Baird and Parliamentary Secretary for the Illawarra and South Coast and Kiama MP Gareth Ward, who also attended the highway opening event.

Alexie Bull has solid experience in Communications and Stakeholder Engagement roles, primarily for local and state government agencies.

Her experience includes researching, developing, implementing, managing and evaluating best practice communication and stakeholder engagement plans in accordance with agency strategic plans, consultative processes and reporting requirements. She is highly capable in managing all community relations for asset planning and project delivery having lead engagement programs on major NSW Government projects in rail, road and bridge construction and maintenance, critical incident response, community education, environmental, and health sectors.

Alexie has infrastructure experience working with three state government agencies including the former Roads and Maritime Services, Transport for NSW and NSW Health, and for eight local government councils; Wollongong; Shellharbour; City of Sydney; Liverpool; Rockdale; Fairfield; Canterbury Bankstown; and Georges River. She is very experienced in delivering successful community engagement plans and managing community liaison, in often sensitive and contentious projects.

Alexie negotiates good partnerships with stakeholders such as members of the public, community groups, schools, hospitals, emergency services, utilities, freight industry and transport representatives, corporates, media, government agencies, subject matter experts, project teams and Ministerial and Mayoral offices.

Alexie has well developed writing and communication skills capably translating technical material into ‘Plain English’ for frequently asked questions, notifications, web updates, media releases, NSW Ministerial and legislatively compliant reports and collateral.

Emma Brindley-Hawke is a seasoned communications specialist with over 14 years’ experience in leading communication and stakeholder engagement strategies. Emma’s extensive background in communications, public affairs, stakeholder engagement, media events, program and reputation management, shows her broad capability in managing engagement on infrastructure projects.

Developing and implementing communication and engagement strategies and plans for complex projects is second nature to Emma. She has planned engagement activities, identified and managed issues. Emma has sound relationship building skills across multiple stakeholders and can manage engagement at various stages of project planning and delivery.

Emma has demonstrated experience in delivering high quality media campaigns and events on time and on shoestring budgets. With an extensive background encompassing projects from the planning to operational stages, Emma has a deep understanding of the communication challenges facing large, high profile, high value projects.

Emma is proficient in multitasking on fast paced projects. She has delivered media launches for government initiatives, openings of major infrastructure projects and awareness campaigns in the health sector. She has managed live radio broadcasts and interviews at NSW government events.

Emma has good working knowledge of government infrastructure project procedures, processes and reporting. She has developed project and communication frameworks for Transport Regulators and managed industry related roadshows.

Anushree (Anu) Malaviya is a highly capable communications professional with over a decade of industry experience in community and stakeholder engagement, public relations, public affairs, media relations.

Her recent work at Schools Infrastructure NSW places her in a strong position with first-hand knowledge of how to deliver community and stakeholder engagement while meeting the directorates’ strategic plans, consultative processes and reporting requirements.

Anu’s work spans across government, education, transport infrastructure, technology, health, consumer goods, engineering, (rail, road, property and water) sectors in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia.

Anu’s strength is her ability to building rapport within communications and project teams, capably managing large portfolios of work utilising her refined time management skills.

Anu has developed and implemented community and stakeholder consultation plans on high profile infrastructure projects. She understands the importance of managing project risks through early engagement, strategic communication and collaborative consultation techniques.

Known for her work ethic, Anu has proven skills in leadership and strategic engagement, working collaboratively with a high respect for deadlines and closely following required policies and procedures.

An award winning IAP2 qualified practitioner, Anu has achieved Winner of IAP2 National Award for Best Project Community Engagement on South Metro Connect. She walks the talk and is an asset to project teams.

Jess Spence is a motivated community and stakeholder engagement professional who thrives working with community, stakeholders, government agencies and large construction firms on NSW Government projects.

Jess has worked her way through the environmental field into communications and engagement in the water and transport sectors. Her water management credentials and environmental impact and resources management knowledge enables her to deeply understand potential impacts when planning, developing and implementing communication and engagement activities on infrastructure projects.

Jess enthusiastically manages best practice community engagement to effectively engage a range of communities and key stakeholders around asset planning, maintenance and operation. Jess shows a mature approach to planning and delivering on multiple complex programs of work.

Jess competently prioritises multiple tasks to meet time frames and deliver engagement milestones in high-pressure environments. She is organised, identifies efficiencies and capably manages budgets and resources in a productive manner. She is a strong team asset who effectively builds relationships with project teams to enable positive engagement experiences across the programs she is responsible for.

Her sound understanding of technical project information and ability to translate concepts into plain English for the community and key stakeholders. She builds and maintain relationships with her colleagues, project teams and stakeholders to achieve positive project outcomes.

Mona Saini is a dynamic professional with broad experience in stakeholder engagement. She has an IAP2 qualified practitioner and holds a Masters of Business Administration. Having worked on the delivery of major infrastructure projects in both transport and communications sectors, Mona is a capable communications and engagement team asset. She thrives at building and maintaining solid relationships with project teams to deliver best practice engagement outcomes.

Mona is a competent engagement advisor who manages competing priorities, ensuring risks and issues are dealt with through planning and proactive communications. She is a collaborative team player with excellent communication, analytical and coordination skills. Mona understands the importance of proactive communications during the design and implementation of projects. She capably ensures engagement activities support government relations and project objectives. Having managed media and stakeholder issues on complex infrastructure projects, her reporting and evaluation skills assist with the planning and management of emerging issues.

Mona is a strong asset to any communications and engagement team working in projects with community members and stakeholders from CALD backgrounds as she is multilingual. Proficient in English as her main language, she is also fluent in Hindi, Gujarati and Punjabi language.

Mona has an impressive track record of managing key stakeholders from different sectors during project delivery. She has planned and managed community information sessions, presented at forums explaining complex construction methods in plain English and delivered project briefings.

Consistently appraised as a high performer, her skills and techniques focus on individual and team orientated achievements. Mona has an eye for detail and a strong work ethic. She actively supports processes and procedures relating to project requirements and team deliverables.

Liz Macmillan is an impressive community and stakeholder engagement officer who has highly developed interpersonal and strong communication skills. A quick learner, combined with her hands on experience in working on a major infrastructure project with a Tier 1 contractor, have proven a successful formula for this young achiever. She has proven skills in customer service and marketing having also worked in retail and art sectors.

Selected by Lendlease to participate in their Community and Stakeholder Graduate Program, Liz successfully outshined others to gain this placement, showing her determination and potential by successfully participating in this rigorous program.

Her success is realised by being invited by Lendlease to join the communications and engagement team and continue to lead key aspects of delivery two major infrastructure projects the Sydney Water Truck Mains Project and The Northern Road upgrade – part of a $1.6 billion linear infrastructure project shaping Western Sydney.

Liz plays a key role in her team and her capability is demonstrated through her proactive approach to managing the 180 property adjustments. Liz capably engages daily with landowners using a wide range of communications tools and achieves a good balance in meeting strict project requirements while fulfilling community expectations.

Liz holds a Bachelor of Media (PR Advertising) and her impressive Distinction average reflects her commitment to hard work and high achievement at her age.

Her maturity is demonstrated through effective problem solving and conflict resolution skills using a collaborative approach to reach a positive outcome for all parties.

She is a people person and understands how to respond to project enquiries, manage complaints, and coordinate community meetings. She has been instrumental in planning timely engagement to help avoid cost and time delays during project delivery. Her exposure on these two major infrastructure projects strongly position her to be an asset to any community and engagement team.

Mireia Garriga has accrued a strong background in communications, engagement and media, Mireia is a capable professional who is an asset to project teams. Having worked on major infrastructure, in film production and digital media, Mireia has demonstrated experience in engaging community, audiences and stakeholders to support project objectives.

Working on Sydney Metro City & Southwest has honed Mireia’s infrastructure engagement skills and provided exposure to intensive communications and front line implementation of day to day community and stakeholder engagement. She worked with the internationally recognised community and engagement team on a complex joint venture lead by industry expert Sue Netterfield.

She has demonstrated her ability to work effectively in high pressure, busy and demanding environments, thriving on being highly organized and proactive in her approach to manage competing priorities.

Mieria is a writer for publications and websites promoting family activities and events around Sydney. Being a mother who has children at school, she understands first-hand the complexities faced by families with school children.

A collaborative team player who also has proven ability to work autonomously, Mieria has excellent communication skills with good understanding of social media strategies as well as developing communications collateral.

She has cross-cultural competence and is an excellent communicator with certificates in Advance English and a degree in teaching Spanish as a second language. Mireia has a Bachelor of Communications and MBA in Audiovisual Management.

As an IAP2 qualified practitioner, Mireia is well qualified to assist communications and engagement activities across multiple project teams. She has exceptional organisational skills demonstrated through her work in television productions which can be very demanding and faced paced. She has strong ability to delivery on time and on budget programs with competing priorities.