Christine Hall appointed as chief executive for Ventures

We are delighted to announce that Christine Hall has been appointed as chief executive for Ventures.


Christine started with Ventures in October 2019 as a general manager supporting the Health Care Home, Patient Access Centre (PAC) and xcrania teams, stepping up as interim chief executive April 2020.



Christine has a background as an occupational therapist in mental health. She honed her leadership skills at Waikato DHB, then Wise Group, as chief executive of a social housing organisation.

Christine's skills and passion for leadership, innovation, better health and social outcomes for people are a real asset to the team.

Having worked in the mental health and homelessness sectors over the last 18 years, Christine has seen first-hand the need for system change within the health and social system.



“I’ve worked at the ‘bottom of the cliff’ in mental health services and homelessness, supporting people who do not engage proactively with health services. I have also seen the missed intervention opportunities that would have changed the life course of individuals along the way,” says Christine.



“For me, the recent shift into primary care was about understanding and influencing prevention focused care, where we take a proactive role in ensuring the holistic needs of our people are met through the vehicle of primary care.”



In her few short months on the team, Christine has shown outstanding leadership to the entire organisation.



Most recently Christine has led the organisation through the unprecedented times of the COVID-19 Alert Levels 4 and 3, relocating most of her employees to work from home while maintaining on-site essential services to the Pinnacle network of practices including xcrania IT solutions and the Patient Access Centre a specialised call centre for a number of GP practices across the Midland region.


During this time Ventures managed to deliver a number of major achievements, including:
• assisting a rapid shift to virtual delivery of primary healthcare services in a matter of days
• launching a ‘soft’ phone solution for PAC and xcrania to enable a number of staff to be able to work from home
• launched signature exempt prescribing via Indici, and linking general practices and pharmacies through Healthpoint for a seamless paperless and virtual system
• testing a virtual locum service, delivered by a GP in Hamilton, to our Waihi Primary Health Care Limited practice.

“As chief executive for Pinnacle Ventures, I am excited by the possibilities for the 13 general practices we own within Primary Health Care Limited (PHCL) and the role we play within our communities to support better health outcomes. Having a focus on wellbeing means we must work alongside other agencies in our community around the needs of individuals and families,” says Christine.

Under Christine’s leadership Ventures has its sights set on continued success in the digital innovation space, and believes the future lies in the ability to share information and measure success in terms of outcomes across agencies and within communities.

“Ventures wants to play a key role in breaking down the traditional organisational silos that exist and to increase understanding on what our customers want and need – both those who engage with us and those who don’t. We have to change the way we deliver services to be more customer centric and meet those needs. We have to rise to the challenge of unmet need and health equity for all.”

“There is massive opportunity for digital innovations that are focused on increasing access and creating business efficiency within primary care. We’re constantly looking for things we can do that enables staff to have more time to care and connect with people – because that is what makes the ultimate difference in terms of wellbeing, and that is some of what you will see from Pinnacle Ventures over the coming year.”