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Meet Sarah Ellison: Chief Technology Officer at Catalyst
13 Feb 2026, 12:02 PMDiscover what technology leadership means to Catalyst's new CTO, Sarah Ellison: empowering people, partnering with clients through “joint curiosity”, and building technology that serves communities.
Sarah Ellison, Chief Technology Officer at Catalyst.
In 2026, Sarah Ellison joined Catalyst as our Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Ask her what she's most proud of in her career, and she doesn't mention technical projects or cloud platforms. "What I am most proud of is how I've supported and empowered others to reach their potential," she says. "Often it's just telling them they can do this, then creating the space for them to give it a go, and making the right support available so they have every chance of success."
It's this people-first approach that Sarah brings to her role as CTO. She has almost three decades of expertise spanning database administration, enterprise architecture, and global team leadership. Her approach: start with the problem, define what success looks like, then choose technology that improves it.
For our clients, this means working with a CTO that focuses on outcomes before technology — purposefully helping organisations make technology decisions that improve productivity, manage risk, and deliver tangible value. Solutions are designed with real-world considerations in mind: organisational capability, change fatigue, cost, and risk — not just technical elegance.
I am focused on how technology enables businesses and people.
Building capability and community
This approach shows up across her career. Sarah contributed to the creation of the first version of the Higher Education Business Reference Model that’s now used by over 1,000 institutions worldwide in eight languages. She's also built enterprise architecture teams from scratch, led strategy creation, and co-chaired groups focused on giving back to the community across New Zealand and Australia.
“I love the fact that I have directly contributed to something with a community good focus,” she reflects. That combination of technical expertise and serving people and their communities is essential to how she works. For Sarah, it’s important to help people build confidence in themselves, whether that's confidence to make a decision, take on a new challenge, or work in a different way. This flows into what she calls “joint curiosity" - working side-by-side with our clients to create a space to explore challenges together, question assumptions, define measurable success, and ensure technology choices support business outcomes.
Strategy before solutions
Sarah is diving into product strategy and AI exploration across Catalyst's portfolio to ensure strategic alignment across Catalyst's offerings. With a big-picture view across Catalyst’s products and services, Sarah helps clients see how different capabilities fit together, identify integration opportunities early, and avoid fragmented technology decisions that increase cost and risk over time. She can guide clients toward solutions that focus on their outcomes rather than individual products.
Don Christie, Managing Director and Co-founder at Catalyst, is delighted to welcome Sarah. “Sarah's approach of starting with people and problems before technology aligns perfectly with how Catalyst works. Her technical depth, combined with her focus on empowering others, will strengthen how we support communities to innovate freely. I'm looking forward to seeing the impact she'll have across our teams and with our clients.”
She brings her collaborative approach directly into customer conversations. Looking forward to working closely with clients, Sarah explains: "What excites me is working alongside clients to build solutions on solid foundations that are secure, scalable, and designed to support their organisations and communities not just today, but as they grow and change."
Curious about what your technology could do? Contact Sarah to explore what's possible by starting with the problem you're trying to solve.
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