Canterbury Businesswoman and Charity Ambassador Named UK New Zealander of the Year

New Zealand businesswoman and Christchurch charity Aviva’s UK-based ambassador Katherine Corich has been named UK New Zealander of the Year by the UK-based New Zealand Society.

The New Zealander of the Year award recognises the outstanding contribution that a New Zealand or British national has made in promoting the interests of New Zealand or New Zealanders in the United Kingdom. Corich was nominated not only for the business achievements of her company Sysdoc, but also for her strong community and charitable contributions in the UK, New Zealand and other countries.

Corich is a passionate supporter of New Zealand, and Canterbury in particular, having completed her university studies here. She has been an advocate for Aviva (formerly Christchurch Women’s Refuge), both nationally and internationally, since mid-2011, and officially took up a role as Ambassador (UK) in early 2012. In her capacity as ambassador she has championed Aviva’s work, undertaken fundraising and profile building events, and actively supports the social services co-location project that Aviva has been leading. This project will see several key social service agencies operate from one premise, shared by primary health care providers, by late 2015. The aim of the co-location project is to enhance the safety and wellbeing of children and their families by providing streamlined access to aligned, specialist services.

“Katherine has been an active and dedicated supporter of Aviva and so many other causes - it is wonderful to see her leadership and contribution to New Zealand acknowledged in this way” says Aviva CEO Nicola Woodward. “Her commitment to community has always been evident to us, most recently with her gift of three months of Sysdoc’s services to the co-location project we are part of. For us to have access to such business transformation and end-to-end process design expertise as we develop new and exciting ways of working is an enormously generous gift. Without doubt Sysdoc will be instrumental in building the collective capability of all our agencies to improve access to services for the people of Canterbury by helping us work more closely and effectively together.”

Sysdoc provides transformation, change, process improvement, training and knowledge management services from offices in the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand. The company actively promotes an ‘action-based philanthropy’ model, supporting a range of philanthropic and charitable causes. Corich was previously nominated as New Zealander of the Year in 2011 and has also been acknowledged twice as Ernst and Young Master Entrepreneur of the Year, NEXT Business Woman of the Year, as finalist in the UK National Business Awards and with a Trade NZ Export Award.

If you need support related to family violence, please visit avivafamilies.org.nzor call free 0800 AVIVA NOW (0800 28482 669), 24-hours a day.

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