About Genvara

Humanising the digital age starts with how organisations actually work.

Genvara brings together decades of experience in workplace culture, leadership, organisational change and technology. We help organisations strengthen the connected conditions that shape how they decide, lead, work, use technology, learn and adapt.

It started with culture.

Genvara’s story begins with Culture by Design, founded by Mary Buckley and Marie Webber on a simple belief: developing a strong workplace culture should not be overwhelmingly complex.

Mary and Marie had spent decades working across leadership, HR, business improvement and culture development. They saw organisations investing heavily in values and leadership programmes, often without understanding the wider conditions shaping how people actually worked. They set out to make culture development simpler, more practical and more closely connected to what each organisation was trying to achieve.

With the rapid growth of AI in our workplaces, Mary and Marie realised there was a strong need to bring people and technology together in a new and holistic way, that allowed humanity to shine.

Different disciplines. One shared purpose.

Genvara brings together experience across workplace culture, leadership, organisational strategy, technology, AI, change, commercialisation and business improvement. That breadth is deliberate: the problems organisations face do not arrive neatly divided into people problems and technology problems.

Mary Buckley

Chief Executive Officer

Before co-founding Culture by Design in 2016, Mary held an extensive background in commercial operations, strategic HR and senior management and has worked for many years as part of senior executive teams in global organisations. She specialises in organisational psychology, in particular employer-employee psychology and how this relates to organisational culture. Mary’s particular strengths include working with boards and executive teams to identify strategic core ideology with an envisioned future, then realising that future through the alignment of culture excellence and leadership capability.

Mary holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Master of Science in Industrial Organisational Psychology, both from the University of Canterbury. She is also a member of the New Zealand Psychological Society and the Institute of Organisational Psychology NZ.

Katherine Deacon

Director of Client Experience and Digital Services

Katherine has more than 20 years’ experience across technology, information, digital strategy and organisational change. Her career has included business analysis, data and software development, Microsoft 365, consulting and commercial leadership.

Over more than a decade with Information Leadership, Katherine worked with organisations across New Zealand to shape digital and information strategies and help executive teams translate technology opportunities into practical organisational change. She also built and led a Microsoft 365 consulting practice, growing the team and developing new services and intellectual property across digital workplace, information management, governance and adoption. More recently, her work has increasingly focused on AI, including AI strategy and readiness, responsible adoption, workforce implications and the redesign of work around emerging human and agent capabilities.

At Genvara, Katherine brings together digital and technology expertise with a strong interest in how organisations actually adapt. She works with leaders to make sense of emerging technology, identify where it can create meaningful value, and redesign the work, systems and organisational capability around it. She holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Canterbury and is particularly interested in ensuring that the digital age remains fundamentally human.

Henry Chandra

Chief Technology Officer

Henry is a business transformation and technology leader with more than 20 years of experience helping organisations make sense of complex digital change.

As Founder and CTO of implement/Solution_, he brings deep technical and commercial experience across cloud, automation, AI and complex systems. At Genvara, his focus is on helping shape the right technology direction, connecting it to the wider transformation agenda, and ensuring the right capability is brought together to deliver it.

Marie Webber

Director of Design and Workplace Culture

Before co-founding Culture by Design in 2016, Marie’s background has largely been in HR and organisational development in both the public and private sectors in NZ, including OD Manager and Global HR Manager roles. Her experience includes the development of healthy and aligned workplace culture through the creation and implementation of culture initiatives both here in NZ and overseas, including the US, UK, China and Australia. Marie’s rare combination of structure and creativity, along with her desire to create solutions for organisations that are simple, practical and highly customised squarely places her in the role of “Chief Designer” for the business. Also an accomplished facilitator, Marie is accredited in a range of team and individual development tools and methodologies.

Marie completed her Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Canterbury and her Bachelor of Business Studies (Honours) at Massey University.

Peter Grogan

Strategy Director

With over 40 years of international experience, Peter brings deep expertise in strategy, business development, organisational growth and transformation.

His career spans executive leadership, international market development, multidisciplinary team building, M&A, consolidation and start-ups across diverse cultural and commercial environments.

At Genvara, Peter brings a broad strategic and commercial perspective, helping shape opportunities for sustainable growth, innovation and long-term organisational impact.

Liliana Braun

Marketing and Digital Advisor

Liliana has worked with the team for over two years, initially with Culture by Design and now as part of Genvara.

She works as an Organisational Psychology Practitioner in Occupational Risk in Sydney, helping organisations better understand and manage psychosocial and workplace risk. Her experience also includes work with a neuroscience start-up and as a clinical consultant, reflecting a strong interest in how people think, work and thrive.

Liliana completed her undergraduate studies in Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Otago and holds a Master’s degree in Industrial and Organisational Psychology from the University of Canterbury.

Outside of work, Liliana is a competitive middle-distance track and trail runner, with multiple national titles and podium finishes.