Hello, I’m Liv.
I help people and organisations untangle complex problems, ideas, and opportunities, and work out what the next steps.
For more than 15 years, I have moved between thinking and doing, from strategy, communications and engagement through to delivery. I’m curious about what’s really going on, and draw on psychology, behaviour change, and systems thinking to understand the bigger picture and find a practical way forward.
It started with the creative industries.
In my twenties, I worked across artist management, publicity, festivals, and touring in New Zealand and internationally. I managed and advised artists including Aldous Harding, Fazerdaze, and Tiny Ruins, and worked as a publicist with artists ranging from Lorde and A$AP Rocky to Flume and Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, as well as St Jerome’s Laneway Festival and more.
For Aldous, I led a team of more than 30 people across international markets, building audiences, selling out headline shows, and securing publishing deals. It was creative and commercial, strategic, and intensely practical. There wasn’t much distinction between having the idea and making it happen, and I loved it.
Looking back, the creative industries were also where I first became fascinated by a question that has followed me throughout my career: what makes people pay attention, connect with something, and ultimately act?
People and places
Alongside music, I built my consulting practice and completed a Master of Arts Management with First-Class Honours. My research into public art and psychogeography took me to Paris and sparked a lasting interest in how people experience and respond to the world around them.
That led me into placemaking, tourism, major events, and economic development.
I worked on the development of Silo Park and Queens Wharf, helping connect Aucklanders with a changing waterfront through music, film, food, art, events, and public space. It taught me that creating a destination isn't just about what you build. It's about giving people reasons to participate, belong, and come back.
Many of those interests came together again at City Rail Link. While one of Aotearoa’s biggest infrastructure projects was being built underground, my work focused on what was happening above it: supporting businesses through disruption, working across different interests and relationships, and helping people and places adapt to significant change.
One of my favourite projects was turning construction hoardings into an outdoor art exhibition that celebrated Auckland's people, history, and culture. The project offered a creative response to a very practical problem.
The settings change
From there, my career became increasingly varied.
I’ve worked on World Cups and major cultural events, government reform, and city-revitilisation projects. I’ve led partnerships and marketing for New Zealand Fashion Week, developed stakeholder approaches for large residential developments, worked across strategy and engagement for an international film production with Amazon MGM Studios, and advised organisations across tourism, arts, culture, and economic development.
The work has taken me from boardrooms and government agencies to construction sites, film sets, festivals, and community halls. I've worked with artists and executives, businesses and residents, mana whenua and community organisations, developers, government agencies, and global giants.
The setting might be different, but the brief seldom changes: getting across something complex quickly, listening to people, working out what’s really going on, and finding a way forward.
More recently, at the Department of Conservation, I worked on a national behaviour-change programme focused on moving New Zealanders from caring about nature to taking action for it. I connected teams across DOC with more than 240 external organisations and helped create the relationships, tools, and pathways that made it easier for people and organisations to get involved.
That work brought together something I’ve been interested in throughout my career: what shapes behaviour, what gets in the way of change, and what helps people act.
All of this has given me a pretty large reference library to draw from.
Something learned in music can be useful in government. Placemaking can change how I think about infrastructure. Psychology can change how I approach engagement. An idea from one world can help untangle a problem in another.
I love ideas that travel.
Have something you’re thinking about, working through, or trying to make happen? Let’s have a chat!