Our senior team

Mike co-leads Verian in New Zealand. For more than 25 years, Mike has advised clients in both the private and public realms delivering deep insight into how people think and behave. Mike works across a wide range of policy areas. He especially relishes tackling the seemingly impossible whether that be measuring the ROI of a public intervention or using theory and multiple data sources to predict how many people will act or where society or a market is headed next.

Jocelyn Rout has recently transitioned into a new role as Executive Director. This reflects her desire to dedicate her focus to the areas she is most passionate about – working directly with clients and delivering hands-on strategic support. Jocelyn is looking forward to deepening those relationships and continuing to contribute to the company’s growth in a more focused capacity than in her previous role as co-MD.

Erina has 14+ years’ experience in the not-for-profit sector, grounded in community and hapū-led engagement and development. She specialises in kaupapa-driven strategy and systems thinking to support collective wellbeing. Before joining Verian, Erina worked across the public and not-for-profit sectors delivering community and hapū-led resilience projects.

Kathryn is a senior strategist and consultant, with 20 years’ experience specialising in communications and behavioural insights. Kathryn advises a range of clients in the public sector, with especially deep expertise in the areas of risky behaviours and family violence. Prior to joining Verian in 2018, Kathryn held senior creative agency positions in both the UK and NZ.

Céline heads up our qualitative insights offer at Verian. Whether Céline is listening to the stories of our most vulnerable New Zealanders, or interviewing senior Government ministers, she is driven to truly understand the reality of people’s experiences and worlds. For more than 20 years, Céline has used this understanding to shed new light on complex problems in the public realm. Céline’s advisory work has been recognised globally at the ESOMAR research effectiveness awards for behaviour change research that led to a reduction in New Zealand’s growing student loan debt.

Guy brings over ten years’ experience as a design researcher and consultant, helping organisations make informed, evidence‑based design decisions. He combines social research with creative methods to support the development of public sector services, strategies, and interventions. Prior to joining Verian, he led design and innovation work across the public sector, supported by a strong foundation in academic design research and teaching. 

Susan has more than 25 years’ experience in the private and public realms advising a wide range of clients. She has a deep expertise in the transport sector. Susan especially enjoys the challenges of projects involving complex methodologies and needing specialised quantitative techniques such as segmentations and modelling.