Role Call: People on the move and gaining recognition in the health sector

Te Aka Whai Ora has a new maiaka hāpori | deputy chief executive public and population health – Selah Hart (Ngāti Kuia, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Ngāti Apa Ki Te Ra To, Ngāti Kahungungu ki Wairarapa). The role, a partnership with Te Whatu Ora, provides leadership across public health. Ms Hart worked for Māori public health organisation Hāpai Te Hauora between 2009 and 2023, in recent years as its chief executive. Te Aka Whai Ora chief executive Riana Manuel says Ms Hart will work closely with iwi Māori partnership boards, regional and district teams, and the wider community to ensure Māori health equity for Māori is non-negotiable.

Nurse leader Frances Hughes CNZM is leaving aged care and retirement village operator Oceania Healthcare to tackle politics, having been selected as the National Party’s candidate for Mana. Dr Hughes has been at Oceania since late 2019 as clinical director. She is a former International Council of Nurses chief executive and has been chief nursing and midwifery officer at Queensland Health, professor of nursing and mental health at the University of Auckland and Ministry of Health chief nurse. She formerly owned and ran a care facility in Kapiti.

Greg Clarke began this week in his new role as chief operating officer with general practice network OmniHealth. Mr Clarke, who for 10 years was chief executive at Health New Lynn, will focus on team performance, strategic and operational business goals. He has 21 years’ experience in health leadership in New Zealand and Australian health. Working a slightly shorter week at Health New Lynn in recent years, Mr Clark worked part-time with Medsector Advisors and then ProCare’s practice acquisition team, but has left both roles.

Karyn Cardno recently joined Te Whatu Ora as group manager, Care in the Community, the team that sets expectations and provides central guidance for GPs, iwi and Pacific providers, former DHBs and public health units and other community providers of health, welfare and wellbeing support. The team was instrumental in the COVID-19 response. Ms Cardno was public health nurse team lead in Hawke’s Bay before moving to the Ministry of Health two years ago on secondment. She is a former National Investigation Centre in Outbreak Response clinical advisor.

Vicktoria Blake has been appointed interim head of sustainability at Te Whatu Ora until 30 June 2023. Ms Blake leads creation and embedding of the agency’s Environmental Sustainability and Climate Resilience Framework and action plan(s). She will be ensuring Te Whatu Ora can meet its obligations with programmes such as the Carbon Neutral Government Programme. Formerly project lead for the Climate Change Working Group, she joined Te Whatu Ora after being sustainability manager, Te Whatu Ora Hauora a Toi Bay of Plenty.

After more than six years as pro-vice-chancellor and dean of Otago Business School, Robin Gauld is moving into a new professorial role at the University of Otago. Professor Gauld now works between the Dunedin School of Medicine and the Otago Business School, further strengthening the focus and building capacity on health systems, management and the business of health. He continues to serve as co-director, with Tim Stokes, of the Centre for Health Systems and Technology.