Mrs Kana Smith

Biography

Kana is an experienced business development manager and project manager at UQ and is currently Project Manager for UQ Cyber Security at UQ’s School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. She is a member of the senior leadership team for UQ Cyber Security unit and supports the Chair and Director of Cyber Security on strategic planning and business development for overall UQ Cyber Security activities (https://www.cyber.uq.edu.au/team/uq-cyber). Since December 2021, she has also been appointed as Project Manager of a UQ wide initiative, Mega Events CRC (https://megacrc.com.au/), a $55 mil federal government grant bid. Kana has brought her previous experience in starting up businesses and her expertise in grant submissions and managing projects of Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) projects to this role, to further advance the business growth of Cyber Security unit, and in her short time has had made numerous achievements. In less than six months of joining her new role, in 2021, she led and won the School’s first DFAT project for the Australia-Japan Foundation and Australia Korea Foundation to hold successful global cyber security panel conferences and led the grant application for DFAT Cyber and Critical Technology Cooperation Program, with regards to a grant proposal to improve the cyber security educational framework for Papua New Guinea students. Ultimately these activities led to the Ambassador for Cyber Affairs and Critical Technology Dr Tobias Feakin to reach out to UQ to hold a global conference for the Pacific Telecommunications Security Expert Forum (scheduled in November 2022) for the 13 Pacific nations (under development). Since Jan 2023, she has also been nominated to become member of the Exec Team of Cyber Champions’ Network that raises awareness of cyber security issues to enhance personal security. Kana has a background in international education and international development and therefore is passionate in developing projects that cross over the cyber security and education/capacity building projects. Aside from managing large scale tenders, grants and projects and hosting global cyber security conferences/forums, she provides oversight to various cyber security initiatives in partnership with external institutions across private and public sectors. Throughout her career, she has been passionate about designing, delivering, and managing capacity building projects globally.

Until early 2021, she was Senior Development Coordinator at UQ International Development, responsible for business development and overseeing project management of many DFAT projects. She has over 13 years’ experience managing international projects and capacity building programs in various fields for a wide range of clients in government, industry, and civil societies abroad and in Australia. Currently she is responsible for the strategic development and management of UQ Cyber Security programs and overseeing its execution of activities. She has led the design, delivery and management of many capacity building projects for multilateral and bilateral donors and partners including Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency, The Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), SPC and others from government and private sectors.