Meet our leaders

Don Christie

Don is the Managing Director and one of the founders of Catalyst IT, a New Zealand owned open source software company headquartered in Wellington.

Don is a former President of the New Zealand Open Source Society and was on the Council of Internet New Zealand for two years. He recently resigned as co-chair of the Kiwi tech organisation, NZRise, after 12 years in that role. He was a developer once upon a time.

A passionate believer in the capability of his fellow Kiwis, Don has long supported and advocated for the digital sector of Aotearoa. Building national and local infrastructure, capability and cyber resilience is at the heart of Catalyst's vision and enabled by the company's strong support for and use of open source software.

Mike O'Connor

A founding Director of Catalyst, Mike has been intimately involved in the expansion of Catalyst from our humble beginnings in 1997.

Mike has helped establish Catalyst's joint ventures and partnerships in education consulting, education product development and broadband monitoring. These ventures have established our international partnership network, and have supported the development of Catalyst's international presence and client base.

Mike now supports the governance and growth of Catalyst's global group of companies.

Godfrey Fernandez

Godfrey, a founding Director of Catalyst, has over 30 years of experience in bespoke development and IT. Godfrey now manages a key account and has oversight of our risk sub-committee, and Health and Safety.

Godfrey has been involved with supporting election systems for the New Zealand democratic process for over 30 years.

He has also been involved in other significant project work, including support, project management and account management for various systems and clients, greenfield systems development, content management systems delivery, financial system conversions, various Y2K projects and the implementation of meat and other agricultural processing systems, implementation and support of internal systems for various government departments, and implementation of corporate web-enabled applications.

Sara Brownlie

Sara Brownlie is an Independent Director. She also sits on the REANNZ (Research and Education Advanced Network of New Zealand), Upper Hutt City Council Risk and Assurance Committee and Mana Mokopuna Risk, Assurance and Finance Committee.

Sara is a Fellow Member of CPA Australia and a Chartered Member of the Institute of Directors (IoD) in New Zealand and of the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ). Sara has had an extensive career working for the NZ public sector in senior financial management and now runs a consultancy business; Fargher Woods Ltd.

Gavin Thompson

Gavin, also a founding Director, also has over 25 years of experience in developing software systems in the manufacturing, engineering, financial and government sectors. Gavin manages Catalyst's hosting facilities and several key accounts and is an active advocate of open source participation and success.

Paul Waite

Paul has many years' experience in the development and management of software projects. Paul has also worked with SOUNZ, the centre for New Zealand music, along with Volunteer NZ and many other clients.

Christine Loughnan, General Counsel

Christine, an experienced in-house lawyer specialising in commercial law and technology, brings a proven track record from her roles in London and New Zealand tech, telco and construction sectors.

As a finalist for both the ILANZ Private Sector Lawyer of the Year and the Artemis Innovation Award in 2024, Christine exemplifies integrity, drive, and creativity. A passionate problem solver, she takes pride in empowering others to navigate legal and commercial challenges confidently, fostering career growth and development.

Katrina Bassett, Chief Operating Officer

Katrina oversees Catalyst’s technical delivery and is responsible for ensuring our teams have tools and support they need to produce great software.

Katrina started her career in the not-for-profit sector, before returning to study and gaining a post-graduate diploma in Computer Science. She joined Catalyst in 2004 and has held a number of different roles in development, technical architecture and management.

She is an advocate of continuous improvement and iteration to help teams achieve their goals at speed and with stability.

Elin Simes, Chief Financial Officer

Elin leads the finance team and financial managers at Catalyst, actively managing financial performance, driving financial outcomes, strategic planning and risk management. She drives financial growth and operational efficiency. Her passion for innovation and strategic financial management helps guide Catalyst towards sustained success in this ever-evolving industry.

Elin also leads our people and capability function, developing and executing our human resources strategy to deliver value-adding organisational people solutions.

Elin is a Chartered Accountant with an accounting degree from Cardiff University. She has a background in finance, audit and change management with more than 15 years of global experience across New Zealand and the UK.

Sam Lewis, General Manager Group Sales

Sam leads Catalyst’s Customer function, with oversight of our sales, marketing and relationship management teams. He is also involved in the governance and alignment of products and services with our international subsidiaries in the UK, Ireland, Australia and Canada.

Sam has an extensive background in international business development including in Trade Commissioner and diplomatic roles for New Zealand in Japan, the Middle East and the United Kingdom. A connector of people and ideas, he applies his broad based market, product and services experience to understanding the challenges of our customers, working with our people to realise the best possible solutions to these.

Jason Ryan, Chief Information Officer

Jason began his career in New Zealand working with the eGovernment Unit at the State Services Commission. When that function was moved to DIA, Jason remained to lead the Communications, Records Management, and Library Services teams.

In 2012, he joined Catalyst as Strategy and Relations Manager, where he led the development of our business strategies and engaged with the government around the adoption of open source. He also led several large public sector projects for Catalyst.

Today, Jason is responsible for the 24/7 operation of our infrastructure and leads the Operations, Cloud Native, and Internal Technical Support teams.

Chris Cormack, Kaihuawaere Matihiko

As Kaihuawaere Matihiko, Christopher Cormack (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitaha) is passionate about making Catalyst a better place for Māori to work at, and for Māori and Māori organisations to work with. He facilitates the integration of Māori values, perspectives, and practices into Catalyst's culture, processes, and projects.

Chris also works to increase the participation and representation of Māori in the IT sector, by supporting Māori-led initiatives, mentoring Māori students and professionals, and advocating for Māori interests and rights. He has special interest in Māori data sovereignty and has spoken on the topic nationally and internationally.

Brian Norris, General Manager Customer Experience

Brian is responsible for ensuring top-notch experiences for both clients and their customers. With a background in user-centric digital experience design from the University of Otago, he brings over a decade of Telecom industry experience to his role at Catalyst.

Brian leads a skilled team of account managers, designers, BA, UX, Accessibility specialists, front-end developers, and testers in creating innovative and user-friendly solutions. His passion lies in empowering individuals and organisations to reach their full potential while delivering exceptional open source solutions to government and private sector clients in New Zealand.