“I’ve always believed the services that reach our most remote locations, and the wildlife found there, deserve backing,” she says. That belief first took shape in the late 1980s, when Sysdoc – the aviation-inspired business she founded in 1986 – was still a fledgling Kiwi company. With resources tight, she and the Sysdoc team chose to support just two causes: the Westpac Life Flight Trust helicopter service and the New Zealand gecko recovery programme.
The gecko project was a sponsorship, and a metaphor. “Here was something small, fragile, trying to survive on its own,” she recalls. “I used to play by the letterbox as a child and watch geckos. I thought they were alligators. Supporting them felt like a reminder that with nurturing, the small can grow strong.”
Her contribution brought her to the attention of then-Minister of Conservation Denis Marshall, who invited her to help launch what was then the New Zealand National Parks and Conservation Foundation. Sysdoc built the foundation’s first website and funded the launch at Parliament. That was the early 1990s. Three decades later, she is again at the table as an NZNF trustee, this time with a global network, deep governance experience, and a track record in scaling projects others thought impossible.
A Board Seat With Deep Roots
Corich’s time abroad – twelve years based in the UK – did not weaken her connection to New Zealand’s environment. She stayed involved in public-private programmes from afar and returned in 2018 with renewed commitment to stay connected to New Zealand and important causes. Her invitation to join the Fund’s leadership came directly from Denis Marshall, and she accepted without hesitation.
Her governance portfolio is extensive: Deputy Chair of the UK Civil Aviation Authority, trustee of Pure Advantage New Zealand, founder and Chair of Sysdoc, founder of tech start-up Serendata and adviser to charities working from Brazil to the UK. Across these roles runs a consistent thread of Corich using strategic thinking and disciplined execution to turn big environmental or social ambitions into repeatable, scalable realities.
Pure Advantage’s current “Recloaking Papatūānuku” programme exemplifies that approach. It quantifies the marginal land New Zealand could replant in indigenous species – 2.2 million hectares – to meet climate commitments and restore ecosystems. “It’s not about taking away productive farmland,” she says. “It’s about restoring gullies, river corridors, roadside strips – the spaces that, if replanted, give biodiversity the environment it needs to thrive.”
Her vision is to see NZNF’s biodiversity work and Pure Advantage’s large-scale reforestation goals operate in complementary lanes: “One’s the flora, one’s the fauna. Together, they can create the full system.”
Thinking Like a Pilot, Acting Like an Entrepreneur
Corich’s career began in the cockpit. Trained as a commercial pilot in an era when women were still routinely turned away by airlines, she paid her own way through licences and theory exams, funding her training with her work at IBM. When doors to the flight deck stayed shut, she applied her aviation knowledge to business, founding Sysdoc to bring safety, process discipline, and operational clarity to complex organisations.
That discipline translates directly to conservation governance. “In aviation, you learn to define the parameters of risk, decide what’s tolerable, mitigate the rest. The same thinking applies to environmental projects – know the scope, be bold, make it repeatable.”
It also shapes how she engages funders. She is known for thinking several moves ahead, matching each potential partner with a project that aligns with their values, and framing the case in terms of lasting impact. “Some funders want to see the multiplier effect; how their support will amplify the good. Others want to know exactly how the outcome will sustain itself over time.”
Long-Term Commitment, Immediate Action
For Katherine, the NZNF’s strength lies in its ability to act decisively on urgent conservation threats while maintaining long-term vision. She cites the Southern New Zealand dotterel programme – “immediate, urgent, and something Kiwis can rally behind” – alongside the Auckland Islands pest-eradication plan, which she calls “big, bold, and completely necessary.”
She resists the idea that ambition should be tempered to match current resources. “Be bold, be ambitious. Once you’ve done what people said couldn’t be done, make it repeatable and scalable.” It’s an approach that has served her in everything from building a multinational consultancy to leading anti-trafficking campaigns during Olympic Games.
Nature as Daily Practice
While she has yet to walk any of New Zealand’s Great Walks her connection to nature is woven into everyday life. She and her husband own six acres of coastal native forest in Waikanae, part of the last stand of its kind. Protecting and regenerating it is both personal and practical.
“I walk every day. I’ll stop to look at a butterfly or watch something moving under a log. My grandchildren will be in the garden and call, ‘Oma, come here!’ to show me something they’ve found. Cities don’t feed imagination the way nature does. Nature creates.”
This belief, that interaction with the natural world fosters imagination, resilience, and care, underpins her work. Whether it’s a child lifting bark to find beetles or a nation restoring millions of hectares, the act of noticing and nurturing is the same.
A Global Lens on Local Strength
Katherine sees New Zealand’s island status as a strategic advantage in conservation. “For all our challenges with nitrates, water quality, and land use, we have an opportunity other nations don’t. We can contain threats, restore systems, and prove what’s possible.”
Her experience in international governance lets her place NZNF projects in a global context. She understands the scrutiny and standards that international funders, governments, and partners expect – and how to meet them without losing the uniquely New Zealand character of the work. That combination is part of what she offers the NZNF: credibility on the world stage, anchored by deep local knowledge.
The Investor’s View: Measurable, Repeatable, Scalable
For investors, whether philanthropic, corporate, or individual, Katherine frames NZNF’s mission in familiar terms: strategic targets, measurable outcomes, and systems designed for replication. “If you can restore an ecosystem in one place, you can take that model and adapt it elsewhere. The initial investment builds not just a win, but a way of winning again.”
She believes the Fund can expand its base by engaging what she calls the “ethical entrepreneurial community” – business leaders motivated by purpose as well as profit. These are people who, like her, may have built success unexpectedly and now want to channel it into work that endures. “You’ve got to be thoughtful about who you approach and how. The right match can fund not just a project, but a future.”
From Gecko to Global Biodiversity Goals
The arc from supporting geckos on Mana Island to shaping multi-million-dollar conservation strategies might seem improbable, but for Katherine it is entirely consistent. Small acts build capacity for big ones. “Back then, we were a tiny company giving what we could. Now the scale is larger, but the principle is the same; find the point of need, act decisively, and make the success repeatable.”
That continuity – three decades of involvement, evolving from early sponsor to strategic trustee – gives her a rare perspective on the Fund’s trajectory. She has seen conservation in New Zealand move from isolated projects to integrated national strategies, and she is determined that NZNF remain at the forefront of that shift.
Belief in Nature, Confidence in People
Katherine is clear-eyed about the challenges: climate change, invasive species, competing land uses. Yet she refuses fatalism. “We’re not powerless. We can act, whether it’s saving a species or recloaking a mountainside. The key is to start, to believe it’s possible, and to bring others with you.”
It’s the same ethos that took her from a young pilot facing closed doors to an international leader in aviation governance and environmental strategy. For the NZNF, it means projects conceived with ambition, executed with discipline, and delivered with an understanding that every success strengthens the next.
As she puts it: “Failure is not an option. We’ve got this.”
