Kath Dewar (FCIM) is the inspiring thought-leader who founded GoodSense. A marketer with over 30 years’ experience and a business-owner since 2001, Kath is shaping marketing into a profession that serves society and nature, as well as an organisation’s stakeholders.
My father’s ancestors descend from the Picts of Scotland and my mother’s ancestors are from North Warwickshire, England. I am from Yorkshire and I now live at Piha in the Waitakere Ranges, West Auckland. My name is Katherine Dewar.”
A Fellow of the UK-based Chartered Institute of Marketing and an award winning international marketer, Kath joined the Sustainable Business Network in Aotearoa NZ in 2003. This began the journey to meld Kath’s personal values with her professional practice, leading to the creation of the GoodSense brand in 2010.
KathSince then Kath has run workshops in marketing for sustainable business and social enterprise for The Ākina Foundation and the Sustainable Business Network, delivered the marketing component of Auckland Council’s Green Growth programme and tutored in marketing sustainability for the University of Auckland. She has also delivered post-graduate guest lectures for AUT and the University of Auckland and spoken on marketing sustainability at the Fit for the Future Conference, the Hospitality Association AGM, and the Association of NZ Advertisers conference. Kath is also the founder and course director of the world’s first online, professional training course in Sustainable Marketing.
Kath helped judge the Sustainable Business Network Awards in 2017 – 2020 and 2010 – 2012. In 2021 GoodSense were finalists in the same Awards with client Outside The Box and in 2013, Kath and GoodSense were finalists for her work challenging Dole banana’s greenwash. The willingness to challenge the status quo sees Kath sought out by journalists for comment on marketing and sustainability.
Kath is an experienced and strategic facilitator, skilled at drawing insights, ideas and agreement from the diverse experiences of participants. Her workshops are fun, interactive and have impact long afterwards.
Kath has a BA(Hons) from the University of Leeds and the post-graduate Diploma from the Chartered Institute of Marketing and is a certified TetraMap facilitator.
In 2022, Kath was elected to the Board of the Sustainable Business Network and invited to join the Advisory Board to the University of Auckland’s Circular Economy Beacon (CEBUS).
Marketing career
In former corporate and agency roles, Kath managed marketing communications and campaigns for brands such as Air NZ, AMP, Cadbury and Microsoft and was a key player behind award-winning campaigns in the UK and New Zealand. In her first NZ agency role, Kath doubled the size of a key account and secured substantial new business inside a year. Moving client-side in 1997, Kath managed the launch marketing for online banking for the AMP group and lead the bank’s marcomms team. Before founding GoodSense, Kath was on the start-up leadership team for a first-generation NZ internet business and then co-owner and Sales & Marketing Director of a cloud-based learning business.
