Elizabeth Sartorelli

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT ELIZABETH SARTORELLI

I am an experienced resilience practitioner with a 14-year tenure within the public service. I have a deep commitment and drive to strengthen organisational resilience across the New Zealand Government Sector. I enjoy managing teams and leading strategic initiatives that drive operational continuity, crisis response, and compliance readiness to ensure that agencies can meet the deliverables for New Zealand’s critical functions and services. I have developed and implemented organisational resilience strategies, overseen work programmes, and aligned response planning to national frameworks. I’ve collaboratively supported Inland Revenue through major national crises, including COVID-19, Cyclone Gabrielle, the Kermadec tsunami response, and the Asteron building closure. These experiences have solidified my ability to deliver tangible, impactful outcomes during times of uncertainty.I bring a strong collaborative approach, having built enduring partnerships across Inland Revenue, the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA), and other agencies. I led and delivered strategic objectives in crisis management, business continuity, and corporate security during my secondment to DIA, enabling me to directly contribute at a leadership level within a second large government agency.I maintain professional relationships across the government and private sectors, and I have represented government in cross-agency forums such as the Incident Management Reference Group and NEMA’s Catastrophic Planning Working Group. Alongside this I’ve spent many years on the steering group of the New Zealand Government Continuity Reference Group (including two years as Chairwoman and two years as Vice-Chair). Recognised nationally and internationally for my contributions, my work has also been acknowledged through regional and global awards.I have a particular interest in strategic governance as well as incident management, crisis management frameworks, exercising and plan validation. I enjoy providing thought leadership on leveraging soft skills alongside subject matter knowledge when engaging with stakeholders and senior leadership teams to embed a resilient culture. I have presented at BCI Australasia and the BCI World Horizon Conference on this topic in 2020 and 2021. I remain dedicated to building resilient, future-focused public sector services and am excited by the opportunity to lead and influence resilience strategy.