Rae Lamb announced as new Te Pou o te Whakaaro Nui chief executive

Te Pou o te Whakaaro Nui (Te Pou), New Zealand’s national centre for workforce development in mental health, addiction and disability services, is delighted to announce Rae Lamb as its new chief executive.

Highly regarded internationally as an innovative and dynamic leader, Ms Lamb comes to Te Pou with vast leadership and governance experience in health, disability and in evidence-based health practice.

Ms Lamb was a Harkness Fellow in Health Policy at the Harvard School of Public Health and Institute for Healthcare Improvements in the United States. She is currently a trustee on the governing board of the internationally distinguished Cochrane.org (formerly known as the Cochrane Colloquium). She is also a member of ACC’s Ethics Research Panel.

Ms Lamb will take up the chief executive role in June, having recently moved home to New Zealand from Australia where she was Aged Care and Aged Care Complaints Commissioner since 2010, appointed by the Australian government. Prior to that she was New Zealand’s Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner for five years. New Zealand audiences may also be familiar with Rae’s distinguished early career as an award-winning journalist and broadcaster.

Te Pou chair Julie Nelson said the board was extremely impressed by the calibre of applicants, with Rae’s quality and breadth of knowledge and experience shining through, along with her extraordinary level of passion.

“Rae brings a wealth of experience in senior leadership, change management and working with diverse stakeholder groups nationally and internationally. She understands the importance of evidence-based health care and decision making, and her professional, ethical approach is underpinned by compassion and a drive to make a significant contribution to systems change in health and social services. The Te Pou Board is absolutely delighted Rae has accepted this appointment and is looking forward to working with her,” Ms Nelson said.

Ms Lamb said she is excited to be taking up the new role.
“It’s a huge honour to be appointed chief executive for Te Pou o te Whakaaro Nui at such an important time for mental health and addiction services in New Zealand. I am really looking forward to working with the government, Ministry of Health, sector and tāngata whai ora to implement recommendations of the He Ara Oranga inquiry.”

Ms Lamb replaces Robyn Shearer who left Te Pou in January to take up the role of Deputy Director-General Mental Health and Addiction for the Ministry of Health.