Kirsten Patterson
Chief Executive
KP is the Chief Executive of the Institute of Directors and is a Chartered Member of the IoD. In 2025 she was awarded the New Zealand Royal Honour, Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to governance and women. She is a qualified lawyer and a Distinguished Fellow of the Human Resources Institute of New Zealand. Her governance roles include:
- Chair, Global Network of Directors Institutes (GNDI)
- Chair, Brian Picot Ethical Leadership advisory board
- Trustee, Voices of Hope
- Board member, XRAP Advisory Panel, External Reporting Board (XRB)
- Ambassador, Wellington Homeless Women’s Trust.
With extensive governance and leadership experience, she is actively involved in community initiatives.
A strong advocate of diversity, KP was also a founding member of Global Women’s ‘Champions for Change’, a group of senior executives and directors who commit to diversity in the workplace, and a founding member of WiSPA, an organisation promoting women in sport, and mentors a number of business leaders. KP was also previously Director of the NZ Rugby Foundation. KP was the founder and is Executive Sponsor for Chapter Zero New Zealand – the New Zealand Chapter of the World Economic Forum’s Climate Governance Initiative - hosted by the IoD NZ to mobilise, connect, educate and equip directors and boards to make climate-smart governance decisions, thereby creating long term value for both shareholders and stakeholders.