MMS, PRINZ member

Kate joined HMC Communications in June 2019 and has more than 25 years public relations experience. She is a lover of people and thrives on partnering with her clients to achieve great results and have fun!

She has worked in both agency and in-house communications roles giving her a breadth of knowledge and experience across sectors such as tertiary education, FMCG, local government, transport, apiary, energy, fashion, aviation, medical research, immigration and agriculture.

Kate’s key strengths include strategic communications planning, issues management, media relations, content creation, leadership and team management, internal communications, and stakeholder relations.

Born and bred on a dairy farm near Cambridge, Kate’s passion for agriculture has always been in her blood. She spent nearly 6 years with PR agency Baldwin Boyle Group in Hamilton and Auckland providing public relations counsel to clients such as the New Zealand Dairy Group/Fonterra, AFFCO, and New Zealand Dairy Foods (now Fonterra Brands). Other key clients included the University of Auckland and Mighty River Power (Mercury).

Kate lived in Italy for nearly 4 years where she worked alongside the CEO of a large fashion corporate, assisting with the development and translation of promotional material, as well as event management for bi-annual expos in Florence.

Kate joined the communications team at DairyNZ in 2007, leading public relations efforts for the New Zealand dairy industry’s environmental and animal welfare programmes. She was also part of the team that coordinated the transition from Dexcel to DairyNZ, which included a major rebranding campaign. During that time, Kate led communications efforts for DairyNZ’s farmer tri-annual levy vote to secure funding for industry-good research and development.

Kate has a Master of Management Studies in Public Relations from the Waikato Management School and started her career with the communications team at the University of Waikato.

Kate was an equity partner in her family’s 1,000 cow dairy operation near Taupo, where she lived for 10 years. She has two school-aged children and enjoys playing an active role in her community.