Patrick Lynch (educationalist)

Brother Sir Patrick Joseph Lynch KNZM, QSO is a leading New Zealand educationalist. He grew up in Auckland in the suburb of Papatoetoe and attended De La Salle College, Mangere East. He became a religious brother of the De La Salle Order. He was President of the Secondary Principles Association of New Zealand (SPANZ) from 1992 until 1994, headmaster of De La Salle College from 1978 until 1994 and then, while remaining a member of the De La Salle Brothers Community at Mangere East, chief executive of the New Zealand Catholic Education Office (NZCEO), a position he has held for 21 years from 1994. His term will end in June 2015. Around 86,000 students were enrolled in Catholic State-integrated schools in 2015. This represented 78% of all Catholic students and just under 10 percent of all students in the New Zealand school system. As the head of the NZCEO, Lynch was instrumental in promoting the national organisational development of the Catholic state integrated school system and also the creation of a national system to review and develop the "special character" of New Zealand Catholic schools (i.e. the religious dimension) in coordination with Education Review Office school reviews. He has dealt with 15 different Ministers of Education during his tenure as chief executive. In 2015 he was made a knight of the Order of Merit for services to education having already been awarded a Companion of the Queen's Service Order for public services in the 1991 Birthday Honours.