PRINZ Committee (Board) Nominees 2026
The PRINZ Committee are looking for 3 members to fill the upcoming vacancies. Additionally, there will also be up to 4 spots available as co-opted members to the Committee following the AGM.
Please find below profiles of 3 members nominated. All below nominees meet board member constitutional requirements, have completed required declarations and have been nominated by verified PRINZ members.
To ensure we have the constitutionally mandated percentage of member votes we ask you to confirm your voting on these candidates online prior to the AGM.
Online voting is now open by following the link here and closes 12 noon Monday 25th May.
Only current PRINZ members are eligible to vote.
Leigh Catley
OSPRI
Please outline how you plan to contribute to PRINZ if elected?
We need to find ways to make members feel more connected to each other. I have experience with membership events, both ‘work’ and ‘social’, and I’d like to get stuck in, creating more opportunities for members to be together, either online or in person. Sharing, supporting and learning together is so important for our industry right now.
Please outline your contribution to and involvement in the Public Relations Communications Sector in the last 5 years
I’m a founding committee member of the Primary Industry Communicators Day. That’s been going for about 15 years, bringing primary sector comms folk together.
I’m a past vice president of the NZ Agricultural Journalists and Communicators Guild and a judge for their awards.
In the last five years I’ve worked for Federated Farmers as general manager, communications, then as an independent media training consultant (and publishing student) and then in Parliament as a press secretary. Now I’m with OSPRI, as a principal advisor, corporate communications.
Please outline your leadership to PRINZ in the last 5 years
I’ve got close to being involved with PRINZ leadership before, even been to a few AGMs. I’ve been a member, on and off, for many years. But somehow, I’ve never really put the effort in to step up and contribute some brain power, effort and enthusiasm. The time for me to do that is now.
What challenges do you see coming for PRINZ and the Public Relations and Communications sector over the next five years that you could contribute to addressing, by your involvement with PRINZ as a Board Member?
Communications and public relations are being challenged from all directions. Technology, AI, social media …is all about the change away from communications specialization. Everyone is a comms expert. I didn’t use AI to write this, but I could have. And does it even matter? We have big questions like that to answer.
A membership group like PRINZ is the best tool we have to make sure we stay involved, throughout massive change, thinking about how communication is best done, and how an organization’s efforts are best seen.
Remember the saying ‘forewarned is forearmed’? A great public relations rule to live by. This industry has been ‘forewarned’. The trick now is how best to be forearmed.
I believe that’s what PRINZ is doing for us.
Nominated by Morwenna Mitson-Grills APR
Cherish Wilkinson
Hono Communications Ltd, Department of Internal Affairs, Te Tari Taiwhenua
Please outline how you plan to contribute to PRINZ if elected?
I’d bring a practical, people-first approach to PRINZ. My focus is on lifting capability across our profession, especially in how we engage and communicate meaningfully with iwi, hapū, Māori whānau and communities.
I’m passionate about creating spaces where practitioners can connect, share and learn from each other. I’ve seen the value of this through the networks I’ve built, through the Māori Comms Network (Facebook community of 600+ members), Tūhonohono Māori Communications Government Network, and Tairāwhiti Māori Comms Network, and I’d love to bring that energy into PRINZ.
I’d also bring a strong public sector lens, supporting members to navigate trust, complexity and change, while helping ensure PRINZ reflects the communities we serve here in Aotearoa.
Please outline your contribution to and involvement in the Public Relations Communications Sector in the last 5 years
Over the past 5 years, I’ve contributed to the sector through both my roles and the communities I’ve built and supported. As Senior Māori Communications Advispr at Sport New Zealand Ihi Aotearoa and now Principal Māori Communications Advisor at the Department of Internal Affairs Te Tari Taiwhenua, I’ve led work to strengthen communications and engagement with iwi, hapū, Māori whānau and communities and embed more culturally grounded practice.
I have founded the Tūhonohono Māori Communications Government Network and continue to administer the Māori Comms Network (600+ members) and Tairāwhiti Māori Comms Network, creating spaces for connection, learning, and sharing across the profession
Please outline your leadership to PRINZ in the last 5 years
While I haven’t held a formal role with PRINZ, I bring strong leadership experience through governance and community mahi.
I’m part of Tāiki e!, Tairāwhiti’s first Impact House, supporting initiatives like Startup Weekend Tairāwhiti and the Tāiki e! Next Gen rangatahi entrepreneurial club. I’m also the founder of Kawhe and Kōrero, a Te Reo Māori language revitalisation community, learning and practicing Te Reo Māori through playing games, and serve on the Hiruharama Marae Sub Committee, leading our marae development and engagement with whānau, hapū, partners, and funders.
Alongside this, I’ve built national Māori communications networks, such as the Māori Comms Network (Facebook community of 600+ members), Tūhonohono Māori Government Network, and Tairāwhiti Māori Comms Network. I’d bring this collaborative, hands-on leadership style to PRINZ, focused on connection, delivery, and impact.
What challenges do you see coming for PRINZ and the Public Relations and Communications sector over the next five years that you could contribute to addressing, by your involvement with PRINZ as a Board Member?
Over the next 5 years, I see growing challenges around trust, the pace of change, and the need for stronger cultural capability across our profession.
People expect more transparency and authenticity, and communications practitioners play a key role in rebuilding trust. At the same time, we need to lift our ability to engage meaningfully, either internally or externally, in ways that are genuine and grounded.
There’s also pressure to keep up with constant change, technological and societal.
Through my involvement with PRINZ, I’d contribute by helping build capability, strengthen connections, and support practitioners to navigate these challenges with confidence.
Nominated by Fiona Cassidy, APR, LPRINZ
Perzen Patel
University of Auckland
Please outline how you plan to contribute to PRINZ if elected?
Communications is less about what you say and more about what you do. Reputation with external audiences is built on the foundation of trust we build with our employees. I’m standing for the PRINZ Committee because I want to bring that strategic thinking about internal communications into how we develop practitioners.
I want to contribute in three areas:
1. Leading AI capability and adoption – Helping organisations with AI adoption will increasingly become a core KPI for communications professionals, and we can only lead that credibly if we’re using these tools ourselves.
2. Equity and Tangata Tiriti-informed practice – Aotearoa’s bicultural foundation is central to what makes our practice globally distinctive. Embedding Te Tiriti into how we develop practitioners shapes our profession’s credibility and relevance. I have experience doing this from my work with the University’s PVC Equity office.
3. Design thinking for organisational growth – Communications functions fail when we build strategy in isolation. My experience leading teams has taught me that deep listening before action is what keeps practice relevant. I want to bring that discipline to PRINZ’s member programmes and advocacy work.
Please outline your contribution to and involvement in the Public Relations Communications Sector in the last 5 years
For the past four years I have led internal communications at the University of Auckland, advising senior leaders on collective bargaining, gender pay gap reporting, enterprise system transformations and crisis response while also looking after day-to-day service communication. I repositioned the team from content distribution to strategic advisory, with a career highlight being our $250,000 intranet transformation.
Before the University, I was the primary communications adviser to the CE and Deputy CE at BestStart Educare throughout New Zealand’s Covid-19 shutdowns and vaccine mandates, managing staff, parent and media communications under real-time regulatory pressure. I also co-founded Dolly Mumma, an artisan curry paste company for which I’ve secured repeat national coverage in RNZ, Stuff and The Spinoff without agency support. I’m also a PROSCI certified change practitioner.
Please outline your leadership to PRINZ in the last 5 years
I have been an active PRINZ member participating in networking events and professional development. The developing high-performing teams course and the AI for human behaviour course were particularly impactful toward my development. While I have not held a formal governance role within PRINZ to date, standing for the Committee is a deliberate step to contribute more directly to the profession. I bring senior practitioner experience across public sector, private sector and entrepreneurial contexts, and a clear view on where our sector needs to invest next.
What challenges do you see coming for PRINZ and the Public Relations and Communications sector over the next five years that you could contribute to addressing, by your involvement with PRINZ as a Board Member?
Three challenges stand out. Firstly, teams are being asked to do more with less as AI reshapes where our mahi adds value. PRINZ has a role in helping members lead this transition rather than watch from the sidelines. Communications professionals are also central to rebuilding public trust across organisations and sectors in an age of mis- and dis-information. To do this, our practice must be grounded in genuine listening and transparency – PRINZ can help practitioners hold to that standard. And finally, Te Tiriti obligations are not optional. Our sector needs stronger frameworks for embedding them into everyday practice, not just in crisis or ceremonial contexts. This is where Aotearoa’s communications profession can lead the world, and PRINZ is well placed to set that standard.
Nominated by Lisa Finucane, LPRINZ
