Our People

Kathryn Rae is an international environmental lawyer. For twenty-five years she has run her own environmental legal and management consultancy working for the EU, World Bank, USAID, Asia Development Bank and many national governments. She has extensive experience of international environmental laws, including drafting environmental legislation and managing, implementing and evaluating environmental projects, including environmental education programmes for schools and communities; and sustainable farming and energy projects.

Kathryn has particular expertise in the evaluation of National Parks worldwide and in biodiversity, water rights and desertification. She established and manages a Conservation Foundation working in China and Mongolia and was a founding Trustee also of Earth Capital Partners Foundation, the first UK foundation approved and registered with the aim of funding sustainability projects and research; is the Chair of Tuli Conservation Trust, a UK charity which implements and funds Conservation and Community projects in the Tuli area of Botswana and co-operates with the Tuli Conservation Trust, NOTUGRE in Botswana and Peace Parks South Africa on national and trans border Conservation, Wildlife and Community projects.

Kathryn is consulting with Earth Partners both on project development and implementation, and project funding.

Son of a diplomat, Christopher was born in Kenya. He was educated in England with short stints in Hungary and France. He loves languages and is fluent in French, is learning Spanish, and has learned a smattering of other languages in the past - German, Russian and te reo Māori. Between 1994 and 2006 Christopher worked largely for the European Union. He was an adviser, diplomat and negotiator for European-funded environmental projects. His biggest success: in 1997 was he persuaded Minister of the Environment from Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to meet together for the first time to stop the pollution of the Caspian Sea and to clean it up. Subsequently, as a director of the parliamentary network GLOBE set up by Al Gore and Mikhail Gorbachev, Christopher was present at the UN Climate Change talks in Kyoto in 1997 and Buenos Aires in 1998. He spent two years in Belgrade advising the European-funded environmental capacity-building project help Serbia ready for possible EU-accession,

In 2010, from Melbourne, Christopher set off with a mate and a projector, on a bicycle: "Bike the Earth". They presented the "Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream" in every second town en route along the way. The symposium teaches the wisdom of partnering with indigenous people. Forging a bridge that interfaces the knowledge of indigenous people with the modern world is at the heart of Chris 's work.

Christopher came to New Zealand in 2011. From 2015-2018 he was General Manager of The Peace Foundation in Auckland. In his role he raised sponsorship money and supported education in primary and secondary schools, training young leaders in peaceful conflict resolution skills. Recently he helped to reinvigorate the Campaign for Justice in Vanuatu.

Whilst Christopher considers Dunedin his homebase, he is now resident in Hamilton, studying Law at the University of Waikato.

Arthur Gunn has over 15 years of profession experience in computer technology. Besides commercial work, he's contributed to many open source projects including Facebook's React.js.

He's also created, and supported software for free including Gunnmap - a tool for creating maps of world demographics, used by banks, NGOs, and researchers for scientific studies. It's also been used by wikipedia editors to create hundreds of maps to educate the public. Astrotour is an interactive, 3D simulation of the solar system used in school classrooms.

Arthur is providing technology expertise to Earth Partners.

Kia Ora Tatou,
Ko Koralee tōku ingoa.
Ko nga puhi maanaaariki te iwi
Ko te hue hue hoki te marae.

Greetings all,
My name is Koralee; I am 26 years old and New Zealand Maori.
My main tribe is Nga Puhi and my marae is Te Hue Hue in Kaikohe, Northland New Zealand.

Since graduating in 2016 with a Bachelor in Psychology and Criminology - I found myself drawn to the not-for-profit sector. I have a keen interest in mental health and often write about my own personal experiences in my spare time.

I currently work in the recruitment industry and am keen to continue and develop my interpersonal and social skills so that I can continue down a path that allows me to work with and help people on a more personal level.

Born in New Zealand 4th generation on the maternal side and coming from the Highlands of Scotland on the paternal side and maternal going back 4 generations...

Deborah is a qualified homeopath and has raised four children who are global citizens as adults. She is passionate about nature in all her glory, in natural environments, food and medicine and has actively worked to maintain the health of the Planet and her peoples.

Deborah has an extensive background in active listening, healing and empowering people to be their best selves.

She enjoys the beach, bush, food and family.

Margie is a business psychologist who seeks to remain true to technical and ethical concerns with a proven track record of supporting organisations from large FTSE companies to small businesses (without their own HR function) through major organisational change and talent management across the whole life cycle. With particular expertise in psychometric assessment for both individual and team development, she will tailor support to all our leadership mentees.

Margie divides her time between Kent in England, and Otago in New Zealand.

John runs his own accountancy practice in Auckland, and has done for the last thirty years. John has agreed to be Earth Partners honorary accountant and to oversee our project accounting systems through Xero.

When not advising companies and charities, John is often found tramping across some of New Zealand's magnificent mountain ranges.