Ms Coughlan will move south from Wellington to begin her new role as general manager of the Central Otago Winegrowers Association (Cowa) next year.
Keen to return to the South Island and work in a role she could be passionate about, she was looking forward to starting work in February.
''When I saw the role advertised, I thought, that could be just the beginning of a beautiful thing,'' she said.
Born and raised in Dunedin, Ms Coughlan attended Bayfield High School before completing a first-class honours degree in geography at the University of Otago.
Geography field trips were often around Central Otago and her honours dissertation was on second-home ownership in Maniototo.
A scholarship took her to Hawaii to complete a masters degree in geography, focusing on environmental management, and it kindled an interest in the tourism industry. She later completed an MBA part-time from the University of Auckland.
Returning to New Zealand, Ms Coughlan worked in various roles, an extensive part of her career being with Air New Zealand during a time when there was a focus on developing the in-bound tourism market.
She said it had been fantastic to see how that industry had evolved and how successful it had been. A big part of her role was developing relationships across the tourism industry.
Later, working for Saatchi and Saatchi in Wellington, Telecom was a key client for her.
She was chief executive of the New Zealand Tourism Industry Association for five years and a shareholder in public relations consultancy the Acumen Group for 10 years, where she was responsible for the New Zealand Winegrowers public relations and Air New Zealand Wine Awards accounts.
So she had started to come ''full circle'' with her previous involvement with wine and tourism, she said.
For the past five years, Ms Coughlan has been chief executive of Positively Wellington Venues, which runs live performances, conventions and events.
Ms Coughlan has also been a director of Te Papa and Tourism New Zealand, chairwoman of Positively Wellington Tourism and a member of the foundation board of Grow Wellington, the region's economic development agency. She is deputy chairwoman of Outward Bound.
While leaving Wellington would be a wrench, New Zealand was still a ''tiny country'' and Central Otago was not far away.
''As I see it, it's a chance to create a new adventure,'' she said.
She loved Central Otago and had often talked about buying land in the region. Combined with the opportunities for wine growers and broader tourism activities, it opened up a whole lot of new and different opportunities, she said.
Cowa had done a ''stunning job'' of establishing the Central Otago brand and there was an opportunity to take that further, she said.
The region had drawn immensely capable people from all around the world and there was a ''lovely pioneering spirit''. It would be stimulating to work with them to identify opportunities, she said.
While the wine industry was competitive, she believed Central Otago had a unique competitive advantage, particularly with pinot noir.
Of the productive area in vineyards in Central Otago, 76% was planted in pinot noir and it accounted for 27% of New Zealand's pinot noir plantings.
Ms Coughlan, who has already attended Cowa's annual meeting this month, said her first steps would involve spending time with various winegrowers and makers to understand where they would like to take the region.
Initially, she will be based at Bannockburn and eventually plans to buy some land and build a house. Her family owns a crib at Bull Creek, on Otago's east coast near Milton, and she is looking forward to spending occasional weekends there.
