Profile - Kelly Macknight

Kelly Macknight (nee McLean) attended St Hilda’s from 1988-1991. She held a variety of roles after leaving St Hilda’s, eventually spending 13 years as the CHRO on the Senior Leadership Team of a global technology company. She gave up this role when her children were young to enable her to have more time to spend with them.

Spending a lot of time within their school environment showed her that there was a significant need for more mental health support in the primary and intermediate environment. Therefore, in 2022 Kelly founded Be Heard Children’s Counselling. Be Heard provides free one to one counselling within the school environment to remove barriers for children and their whanau. Be Heard is a not for profit which does not receive any Government funding.

When Kelly isn’t running Be Heard and out fundraising, she spends her time with her thirteen year old son and ten year old daughter.