DTK and Associates, led by Deb Te Kawa (Ngāti Porou), is a niche consultancy firm specialising in governance, public management and public policy. Based in Ōtautahi and Tahuna, the firm serves public, private, iwi, hapū, family businesses and community organisations across Aotearoa and Australia.
DTK and Associates operates through virtual, project-focused teams, bringing together the right expertise for each project. The firm currently has five teams working remotely, ensuring flexibility and responsiveness to client needs. Recent projects include reviewing compliance frameworks to reduce administrative burden, facilitating the design of national non-clinical pathways, evaluating infrastructure investments and resetting governance models to better serve new chairs.
Deb brings extensive expertise to her consultancy work, honed through significant roles in both public policy design and implementation. She designed and implemented the Performance Improvement Framework (PIF) and has advised on a range of complex issues, including Te Tiriti, gender equity and social investment. Deb has also worked across diverse sectors such as infrastructure, security, social services and health. Notably, she contributed to the evaluation and redesign of land transport funding models, evaluated vaccination uptake and served on the ACC Customer Advisory Panel. Currently, Deb is designing several national commissioning and outcomes frameworks for public services in Aotearoa New Zealand.
In addition to her consultancy work, Deb is a PhD candidate at the University of Canterbury, researching free and frank advice from the perspective of Ministers and senior officials. She holds a Bachelor of Arts, a Master’s in Public Management, and certifications in System Analysis and Change Management from Cornell University, as well as in Post-Conflict Institutions from the United Nations University. Deb is an accredited Board and Company Secretary, a certified Intervention Logic Mapping facilitator, and a qualified project, programme, and portfolio manager.
Deb is also a committed educator, lecturing and tutoring in public management, devolution, institutional performance and emergent service delivery models. She writes a monthly column for Business Desk, profiling the latest implementation research, and explores innovative ways to bridge the gap between research and public policy, ensuring that evidence-based insights inform decision-making.
Founded in 2015, DTK and Associates has built a strong reputation for its commitment to improving outcomes for whānau and communities. Through a combination of practical expertise, academic rigor, and a flexible, collaborative approach, Deb and her team continue to make a small but significant impact across the public, private, iwi and community sectors in Aotearoa and Australia.
Organisations that continuously improve how they direct and organise themselves are more successful than those that don’t.
We help boards in the public and private sectors oversee delivery.
Services include confirming institutional role and purpose and, therefore, board strategy; clarifying current and future state operating and service delivery models; and reshaping governance, capability and funding models to enable implementation.
Our most popular services are redesigning governance and service delivery models.
Public policy advice is at the heart of government and DTK and Associates.
We offer public, operational and regulatory policy advice.
Services include policy commissioning advice for ministers, boards and executive teams, preparation and peer review of cabinet and board papers, facilitating policy conversations with large groups representing multiple interests, coaching and mentoring, and evaluating policies using a combination of kaupapa, qualitative and quantitative analysis.
Our most popular services are workshops on free and frank advice and assisting analysts in improving the quality of their thinking and writing. Our research and evaluation method—multi-factor analysis to quantify implementation success—is also popular.
Practical governance advice and support that strengthens trust and transparency in decision-making is in high demand.
We support organisations to embed the principles of good governance.
Services include secretariat services, governance model reviews, annual health checks, institutional performance reviews, recruiting and appointing chief executives, assistance with chief executive performance reviews, coaching and mentoring new board secretaries, inducting new board members, and refreshing governance charters, manuals, and policies.
Our most popular services are secretariat services, annual health checks, and aligning board risk tolerance and chief executive delegations.
