Role about making ‘a better New Zealand’

A strong advocate of diversity, Ms Patterson was a founding member of Global Women’s ‘‘Champions for Change’’, a group of senior executives and directors who commit to diversity in the workplace, and a founding member of WiSPA, an organisation promoting women in sport.

There was some movement with diversity on boards; while it might get measured on the basis of NZXlisted companies, because that information was publicly available, there was ‘‘huge’’ diversity in the notforprofit sector.

IoD’s Mentoring for Diversity programme had been going for a long time and the organisation also had a Future Directors programme which aimed to develop the next generation of directors.

IoD’s membership was becoming increasingly diverse and the age demographic was also changing on boards. Boards were also looking for regional diversity, seeking representation outside of Auckland and Wellington for national roles.

Ms Patterson was still personally involved in governance; she previously served as chairwoman for the Wellington Homeless Women’s Trust, a small charity which did ‘‘amazing work’’.

She is on the board of Voices for Hope, a youth mental health charity which was cofounded by Jazz Thornton who was appearing in the latest series of Dancing With the Stars, chairs an advisory board at Victoria University with regards to ethics committees, and is on an advisory panel for the External Reporting Board.

Ms Patterson got a lot of inquiries from people wanting to get involved in governance and wondering where they should start.

Starting in a notforprofit, it was important to be involved in something they were passionate about, she said.

For it would involve nights, weekends, take you away from family and your work. And they were also not just there for the mechanics of governance; it was about connections and understanding the ‘‘why’’ of the organisation — ‘‘that’s where the magic happens’’.

Governance was often talked about being a team sport — the board came together and worked as a team — but directors were individual athletes and with that, came individual liability, so it needed to be thought through carefully.

People should not seek to go on a board if they did not like reading; while boardrooms might appear to be the hub of governance, hours were spent at home reading, and people had to be able to consume large portions information.

Being a director needed to be taken seriously; it was ‘‘not just an adjunct or addon’’ to something to do, or to look good on a CV, it was an active role.

But it was also incredibly rewarding for people if, like Ms Patterson, they were interested in what was happening in different businesses and what the various challenges were.