Our Stories: Katherine Corich

Written by Sophie Bevin.

KatherineCorichKatherine Corich is a business leader, entrepreneur, mentor, adviser and academic, whose success and influence spans across business, the public sector and charities. Katherine is the founder and chairwoman of the Sysdoc Group, a consulting practitioner business founded in 1986 in New Zealand which today has operations in four regions and has consultant reach in over 72 countries. 

Katherine’s impact and legacy extends far beyond her success with Sysdoc. She continuously acts as a catalyst for change and development across many industries and organisations across the world. In 2015 she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacture and Commerce at Saïd Business School in Oxford, where she teaches strategic business courses. 

Katherine’s talent is sought by multi-national organisations across various industries.

She has led transformation programmes across a spectrum of companies including IBM, Vodafone, National Australia Group and Fonterra. She has contributed to programmes for Chevron, Shell, Network Rail, Meridian Energy, Jaguar Land Rover, McLaren, and many governmental and public sector organisations in New Zealand, Australia and the UK.

Katherine’s long list of accolades are testament to her success. Awards include winning the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award twice (Finance, Services & Arts (2003) and Master Entrepreneur (2010)), the Aveeno Business Women of the Year and the UK New Zealander of the year 2015. In 2016 she was also inducted into the New Zealand Technology Hall of Fame.

While she has a global focus, Katherine is committed to the development of businesses and entrepreneurs in New Zealand, especially in the agritech and biotech sectors. She has coached entrepreneurs on leadership and business development and is also an active investor financially.

Beyond business, Katherine has directed her talents to philanthropic causes, most recently working with Happy Child, a charity rescuing children from situations of personal and social risk in Brazil. Katherine chairs the board and has supported Sarah De Carvalho MBE (CEO) in lobbying and winning the support from 43 Governments globally, signing Usain Bolt, Frank Lampard and Gary Linekar as ambassadors and launched the “It’s a Penalty” campaign, seen by over 108 million people. Happy Child has been made a legacy charity of the 2016 Olympic Games, meaning it will receive significant and sustained funding to continue delivering life-changing services.

Katherine serves on the boards of Liverpool Mayoral Development Corporation, Women in Leadership Europe and Global Women as well as the advisory boards of CEISMIC, Aviva Family and Global Angels. Katherine holds an MA in Linguistics and is a qualified Commercial Pilot and Flight Instructor. She also holds a Certificate and Diploma in Company Direction.

These achievements are just some of the reasons why Katherine has been named a finalist in the Global category at the Westpac Women of Influence Awards in Auckland on October 10. We wish her and the other finalists from our network the best of luck.