Meet the Team

Inā kei te mōhio koe ko wai koe, i anga mai koe i hea, ka mohio koe, kei te anga atu ki hea.

If you know who you are and where you are from, then you will know where you are going.

Lorretta Kahui — Director (CA, CPP)

Ngāpuhi | Hawke’s Bay

Lorretta founded Kahui Advisory because building something authentically her own means more than any role ever could. A Chartered Accountant with 20 years of experience across Aotearoa and Australia, she leads with manaakitanga and whanaungatanga at the centre of everything — real, direct, and deeply invested in the people she works alongside.

Director (CA, CPP)

Ngāpuhi | Hawke’s Bay

Lorretta founded Kahui Advisory because building something authentically her own means more than any role ever could. Raised with manaakitanga and whanaungatanga at the core of who she is, she shows up the same way every day — real, direct, and deeply invested in the people she works with.

A Chartered Accountant with a Certificate of Public Practice and a Bachelor of Management Studies (First Class Honours) from the University of Waikato, Lorretta brings over 20 years of experience spanning both public practice and commercial environments in Aotearoa and Australia. Her career began at BDO in Wellington, before taking her to Brisbane with Blackbaud-owned Everyday Hero, and back home to New Zealand with Findex across Wellington and Hastings. That breadth of experience — across sectors, geographies, and business sizes — shapes the way she advises clients today.

As Director, no two days look the same. From client-focused mahi and mentoring her team, to strategy days, leadership development, and showing up at BNI and Hawke’s Bay Chamber of Commerce events — Lorretta is fully in the driver’s seat, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

What she loves most about her work is simple: the people. Walking alongside clients and staff through the highs and the hard times, being one of the first phone calls when it matters, and being a trusted advisor in the truest sense of the word.

As for what clients might not expect? What you see is what you get. Lorretta doesn’t shy away from the hard conversations — and if you need to be challenged, she’ll do exactly that, with care and without apology.

Outside of work, Lorretta is a proud māmā to an 8-year-old daughter, a 9-year-old four-legged son, and has been a bonus mum to four more tamariki for nearly 18 years. Her whānau live papakāinga-style alongside her parents in Hawke’s Bay — a home they rebuilt with love and resilience after Cyclone Gabrielle took everything they had in Puketapu. She finds joy in the maara kai, cooking from what they’ve grown, and is currently in her second year of reclaiming te reo Māori — a journey she holds close to her heart.

Ngāpuhi proud. Hawke’s Bay based.

Kelly List — Operations Manager

Hastings | Hawke’s Bay

Kelly is the operational heart of Kahui Advisory — the person who keeps the engine running while also helping to shape what it’s growing into. With nearly 20 years across finance, consulting, and client services, she brings both the strategic thinking and the practical depth to make things work. Based in Hawke’s Bay, and always thinking about the next problem to solve.

Operations Manager

Hastings | Hawke’s Bay

Kelly is the operational heart of Kahui Advisory — the person who keeps the engine running while also helping to shape what it’s growing into. As Operations Manager, her days span bookkeeping for a handful of sole traders, process efficiency and data analysis for clients, and the behind-the-scenes strategic and systems work that keeps Kahui Advisory moving forward.

With a BCom & Administration from Victoria University and nearly 20 years across economic consulting, investment management, insurance, and accounting — most recently eight years in senior client services leadership at Findex — Kelly brings serious operational depth to a business that prizes doing things differently.

Her natural instinct is to listen first, then research, then come back with questions or options rather than just an answer. She keeps the big picture in mind while being someone who can easily get lost in the detail — which, for clients, usually means nothing gets missed. Once she has a challenge to untangle, she’s all in until it’s resolved; she’d be the first to admit it takes up more headspace outside of work than is probably sensible. She has a reputation for being calm and steady under pressure, and for always explaining the why behind her thinking, not just the what. Internally, it’s rarely as calm as it looks.

What drew her to Kahui Advisory? In her words: Lorretta. “I knew her values were deeply grounded in who she is long before Kahui Advisory existed. Her ability to empower the people around her is something I’ve always admired — and we are a great balance to each other.” A shared belief that everything is figureoutable has carried them both ever since.

Outside of work, food is Kelly’s love language — weekends often involve new recipes, baking for lunchboxes, or a hopeful patch of home-grown kai. She’s a dedicated mum to two teenage daughters and loves nothing more than family time — whether that’s a camping trip near the water, exploring somewhere new, or simply being home with hubby, Penny the Spoodle (Kahui Advisory’s Napier office dog), and the pesty cat Coco.

Hellene Overend — Accounts Manager

Napier | Hawke’s Bay

Hellene brings 30 years of bookkeeping expertise and an unshakeable commitment to accuracy — the kind of steady, trusted presence that small business owners, particularly in construction and engineering, genuinely rely on.

Accounts Manager

Napier | Hawke’s Bay

Hellene brings 30 years of bookkeeping and finance experience to her work at Kahui Advisory — and the kind of steady, trusted expertise that small business owners genuinely rely on. Her background spans government, NGOs, and commercial enterprises, and she now specialises in tailored financial support for small trade businesses, with particular depth in construction and engineering.

What drives Hellene is the investigation. When the numbers don’t quite balance, she’s the one who quietly and methodically works through it until she finds out why — and fixes it. She sees herself as an extension of her clients’ teams, not just their bookkeeper, and she backs that up by actively championing her clients within her own professional networks.

Hellene is grounded in the value of good relationships and clear, accurate work. A small, connected team where she can do meaningful work close to the people she supports is exactly where she belongs — and at Kahui Advisory, that’s precisely what she’s found.

Nicky Ford — Accounts Manager

Hastings | Remote

Nicky is a numbers person in the truest sense — technically grounded, analytically sharp, and the kind of advisor clients call first when they need someone who will actually dig into the detail.

Accounts Manager

Hastings | Remote

Nicky is a numbers person in the truest sense — someone who finds genuine satisfaction in what the figures reveal, and what can be done about it. With a Bachelor of Business majoring in Accounting and eight years as a BAS Accountant in chartered firms, she brings real technical depth to her work across payroll, GST, monthly reporting, reconciliations, and debtor management. She loves analysing the numbers, spotting issues before they become problems, and giving clients the kind of clear, confident advice that helps them make better decisions. Many reach for the phone to call Nicky first — whether it’s a technical question or simply someone experienced to think things through with.

What drew her to Kahui Advisory was the whānau-first culture and genuine flexibility — a rare find, in her words. Outside of work, Nicky is a devoted mum to a two-year-old miracle daughter, a self-declared huge animal lover (six cats, and hoping for more dogs), and a former marathon runner whose quiet determination clearly didn’t stay on the track.

Jacqui Bougen — Senior Accounts Manager

Hamilton | Waikato

Jacqui brings a rare combination of business ownership experience and 12 years in bookkeeping — meaning she understands the pressures her clients face from the inside out.

Senior Accounts Manager

Hamilton | Waikato

Jacqui Bougen is someone who has seen business from the inside out. Before moving into bookkeeping, she spent 12 years running her own transport business — an experience that gave her a practical, grounded understanding of what it actually takes to keep a business ticking. She knows the weight of a payroll deadline, the stress of a cashflow crunch, and the value of having someone in your corner who gets it. That real-world perspective is something her clients feel from the first conversation.

Based in Hamilton, Jacqui manages the full accounts cycle for her clients — creditor payments, customer invoicing, debt management, payroll, GST, PAYE, and bank reconciliations. The variety is something she genuinely thrives on. Every day brings different tasks and different people, and for Jacqui, getting to work alongside motivated business owners who are building something of their own never gets old.

Jacqui brings with her a loyal client base and a wealth of experience across all kinds of businesses and entities. Outside of work she’s happiest in the garden, out on a bush walk, or planning her next trip away — ideally somewhere that involves good scenery and even better company.