Role Call - People on the move and getting recognition in the health sector

Rosalie Percival has been confirmed as chief financial officer at Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand, after two months in the acting role. A fellow of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, Ms Percival has worked in banking and insurance, but most recently had two years as chief financial officer at Te Whatu Ora Capital, Coast and Hutt Valley and its predecessors. She held the same role for eight years at Auckland DHB and for 12 years at Waitematā DHB.

Nikki Turner has replaced Sir David Skegg as chair of the Strategic COVID-19 Public Health Advisory Group, and Patricia Priest and Matire Harwood are newly appointed members. Professor Turner, of the University of Auckland, is medical director of the Immunisation Advisory Centre and a specialist GP practising in Wellington. Professor Priest is an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Otago, and associate professor Dr Harwood, is a University of Auckland hauora Māori academic and doctor at Papakura Marae Health Centre.

The 2008 medal-winning Paralympian Paula Tesoriero MNZM is the inaugural chief executive at Whaikaha – Ministry of Disabled People, responsible for providing strategic leadership to achieve better outcomes for disabled people.

Until recently, Ms Tesoriero was disability rights commissioner at the Human Rights Commission, a position she held since 2017. She is a former general manager, higher courts at the Ministry of Justice and general manager, system and partnership at Stats NZ.

Ms Tesoriero is a law, arts and public management graduate.

Te Whatu Ora has announced its new national commissioner is Abbe Anderson, of Brisbane, Australia.

Taking over from Keriana Brooking who held the interim role, Ms Anderson is a former chief executive of the Brisbane North Primary Health Network.

She has also worked for the Institute for Urban Indigenous Health.

A Te Whatu Ora media release says in her new role she will lead strategic development and management of a commissioning system that delivers community and primary care and integrates with hospital and specialist services.

ProCare clinical director and specialist GP Allan Moffitt has begun a six-month secondment to Te Whatu Ora for two and a half days a week as interim clinical director commissioning.

For the balance of the week, Dr Moffitt is staying in his ProCare role, which he has held for more than eight years.