Carol Watson

Carol Watson is an experienced HR Director with a track record in leading transformation in Human Resource Management teams in the public and government owned sectors, for private corporations and within Universities.

Carol has held HR Director positions at a number of organisations – an international job network firm, Ingeus, at two major Australian Universities – Griffith and RMIT University and has been the Deputy HR Director for one of the largest organisations in Australia – Education Queensland. Her expertise is in all aspects of human resources and in policy, having held roles as Director Social Justice in the South Australian TAFE system and in the Equal Opportunity Commission in South Australia. She has worked in three states – Queensland, Victoria and South Australia in government as well as nationally at ANTA (the Australian National Training Authority) and globally at Ingeus, which had offices in the UK, France and Germany. Most recently in 2018 – 2019, Carol was engaged as Interim Director, People and Culture for Murdoch University to commence a significant cultural change program, so has recent experience of University HR issues and cultures. In the past, she has been Interim HR Director at Macquarie and CDU.

Carol has been involved in filling over 240 leadership positions at all levels from Vice-Chancellor to Head of School as a HR Director within the University system, CEOs in the private sector and Senior managers in the public sector. Since moving into professional search, she has assisted a number of Universities select a Vice Chancellor, Deputy Vice Chancellors, Pro Vice-Chancellors, Directors and Professors. Carol has also filled positions within the vocational education sector at senior management levels, in business development, in policy and in membership associations.

Carol has been involved in all aspects of running a HR function and is known for her capability in developing strategy, customising approaches to best suit the organisation and transforming poorly performing functions into professional, client focussed services. She has had experience in all areas including workforce planning, organisational development, strategic recruitment, remuneration, policy, industrial relations, payroll, major HR system implementation, and grievance handling.  Through her unique ability to engage both clients and candidates on a professional and personal level, and far reaching and respected networks, Carol succeeds in providing strategic solutions to the most difficult challenges in human resource management in organisations today. She is passionate about connecting the strategic with the operational in HR as implementation often fails if the two are not aligned – and moves easily between both levels.