Speakers

Sarah was honoured to be elected in 2020 to serve as the Member of Parliament for Ilam. Sarah lives in the Ilam electorate with her husband, Andy. 
She moved to Christchurch in 2004 and before being elected to serve as the MP for Ilam she worked as a midwifery lecturer at Ara Institute of Technology, having previously worked as a community midwife. 
Sarah has a strong sense of social justice, and is dedicated to ensuring that everyone has the same opportunities irrespective of their gender, ethnicity or background. Sarah brings a positive attitude, an ethic of hard work, and boundless energy and enthusiasm to be a strong voice at a national level for the people of Ilam.
Sarah’s experience as a midwife includes working both at Christchurch Women’s Hospital and as a rural midwife. She served for three years as the President of the majority union of academic staff at Ara, a hands-on role underpinned by her ability to find productive solutions to a wide range of workplace issues, as well as successfully leading employment negotiations. Working in education and health care, and constructively liaising with senior managers, Sarah is uniquely placed to understand the opportunities and challenges of both areas.
Before entering Parliament, Sarah was Chair of Labour Women's Council and was the co-founder of the Canterbury Women's branch of the Labour Party.
Currently, Sarah sits on the Health Select Committee and is the Chair of Labour Wāhine Caucus. Sarah also belongs to the Health, Wellbeing, and Social Services Caucus Committee, and the Justice, Foreign Affairs, and Trade Caucus Committee. 

Nick joined Southern Cross Health Society as CEO in 2017. The business has a vision of a Healthier Society and a purpose of empowering Kiwis to live their healthiest lives. This fuels his motivation to ensure Southern Cross is relevant to Kiwis and New Zealand now and well into the future.  
Nick came to Southern Cross on the back of a successful career with KiwiBank, where he held the role of Chief Operating Officer for five years. This was the culmination of 14 years in various leadership roles at the Bank. Before then he held a number of roles at National Bank and at investment bank UBS Warburg in London.   
Nick is also a Trustee and ex-Chair of the Leadership New Zealand Board, having been an alumnus of the programme in 2010, and a Director on a number of Southern Cross subsidiary Boards.  Nick has had more than 25 years’ experience in the financial services industry in various leadership and governance roles across retail and investment banking organisations.   
He has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Canterbury. 
Nick is a proud Kiwi who strongly believes in the potential and prosperity of New Zealand. Born in 1973, he was raised with a classic Kiwi upbringing and values in Christchurch.   
Married to Georgina for 19 years, the couple has two children; Charlie (15) and Katie (12). The family spends time together out and about, travelling, mountain biking, keeping fit and supporting the childrens’ sports.  

Karen is passionate about improving health and wellbeing outcomes enabled through data, information and technology. She enjoys the challenge of achieving better design, development and implementation of digital capabilities so all New Zealanders can live their best lives. 

As the Digital Health Leader for the Hauora practice at PWC, Karen brings a clinical and equity lens to digital health in her pursuit to transform the delivery of healthcare. She specialises in health data and information strategy, digital identity, service design and workforce development. 

A proud Kāi Tahu wahine, Karen brings over 25 years of health sector experience in both Australia and New Zealand. She is a registered midwife and has also worked in government, management and education. She has held various governance roles, and is currently the board chair of Health Informatics New Zealand (HiNZ).

Erin is an experienced Business and Governance Leader in the healthcare sector with a career spanning 30 years. Her knowledge and expertise are in medical devices, equipment and digital healthcare across radiology, surgical specialties, cardiology, gastroenterology, and endoscopy. Originally a registered nurse, she then transitioned into medical device sales and developed an aptitude for management, commercial strategy, and governance. 

Erin is currently New Zealand Country Manager for Philips Health Systems, part of the ANZ leadership team, after joining in November 2020. Previous roles included 6 years leading Olympus New Zealand, and 10 years with Medtronic in various roles including sales, sales management, and branch leadership.

Erin is passionate about the New Zealand healthcare sector and represents the industry as the President and Chair of the Medical Technology Association of New Zealand (MTANZ). She also has a passion for personal development and is a founding member of Women in HealthTech (WiHT).

President and CEO

Suzanne's career started in marketing, initially helping build fast-growing, entrepreneurial start-ups in the early days of the internet. Her career progressed rapidly as she completed an MBA from Warwick Business School and built her experience across multiple sectors as a management consultant with Capgemini Consulting. Her unique set of skills, experience and passion to make a real difference led to senior roles in healthcare and media businesses. Suzanne brings a powerful combination of strategic understanding and operational excellence, always inspiring those around her to exceed their targets.

Brent is working on the Health NZ Day One Project in Finance for the health transition.  He is a Chartered Accountant seconded out of a Hamilton-based GM role in primary care.  Prior to that he has held CFO roles, including Bay of Plenty DHB where he worked for 10 years.

Patrick is the Product Director for Hira. He has background in software development, human centred design, and building technology that works for people. He spent most of the last two years working in the COVID-19 response on digital services like My Covid Record, Book My Vaccine, and NZ COVID Tracer.

Having spent 18 years abroad in the UK and Australia, Sarndrah has built experience around future-proofing organisations against the pace of technology change, aware of the risks inherent with major operational shifts, and the importance of security and risk management. 

Key highlights include transforming a national regulator into a future-fit organisation by architecting a major business and digital transformation program, being an independent reviewer to several key health regulatory organisations globally and leading several key organisational change programmes across the UK Government and NHS organisations. 

Lance Little became the Managing Director, Region Asia Pacific for Roche Diagnostics in 2012. Prior to this, he was Managing Director of Roche Diagnostics India, where he was also the head of the wider Indian sub-region, which includes the neighbouring markets of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Lance joined Roche in New Zealand in 1995 in the technical support and management division of Boehringer Mannheim’s Clinical Chemistry portfolio, before moving on to sales and marketing roles until 2008. He was then appointed Managing Director of Roche Diagnostics Thailand and returned a year later to New Zealand to take up the role of Managing Director in 2009.

Lance began his career as a Medical Laboratory Scientist, specialising in Biochemistry at the Auckland Hospital Laboratory in New Zealand. Following that, he spent some time managing the Automation Laboratory at Diagnostic Laboratories in Auckland.

Lance graduated from Auckland University of Technology with a degree in Medical Laboratory Science with specialisation in Clinical Biochemistry. He currently sits on the Board of the Asia Pacific Medical Technology Association (APACMed).

Talk Title: 'The opportunities of data and digital innovation for ōranga whānau and equity'

Dr Mataroria Lyndon is Deputy Chair of Te Hiringa Hauora Health Promotion Agency and a Board member of the Māori Health Authority, Northland District Health Board, Aktive, and Pūtahi Manawa Aotearoa Centre of Research Excellence. 

He is a Senior Lecturer in Medical Education at the University of Auckland and co-founder and Clinical Director of Tend Health. He was previously Equity Lead at Mahitahi Hauora and a medical lead for Māori health at Counties Manukau DHB. 

Mataroria completed his Master of Public Health at Harvard University as a Fulbright Scholar, and his PhD is focused on medical education. He was also awarded the Deloitte IPANZ Public Sector Young Professional of the Year 2016.

With a strong background in healthcare and delivering quality public services, Megan is passionate about leading ACC to deliver on its purpose of improving lives every day.

Prior to joining ACC, Megan held leadership roles at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment as Deputy Chief Executive of Managed Isolation and Quarantine, and Deputy Chief Executive of the Corporate, Governance and Information Group.

She was previously Chief Executive at NZ Health Partnerships and Chief Executive of Health Purchasing Victoria (Australia). Before joining the health sector, Megan held senior line management and consulting roles in a range of industries including fast-moving consumer goods, manufacturing and professional services.

Megan holds degrees in engineering and science from the University of Melbourne and an MBA from the Melbourne Business School. Megan has also completed the Australian Institute of Company Directors’ Company Directors Course and Harvard Business School’s Leading Change & Organisational Renewal.

My firm belief - People, Process and then Technology!
My strengths are my ability to engage at all levels of an organisation; extracting the strategic vision and identifying information and solution opportunities and seeing them through from development to delivery.

I have an appreciation of the ever growing needs of organisations requiring customer focused service delivery, and information systems that create better flow, enable increased productivity and reduce costly errors.

I have strong conceptual skills and am able to maintain a firm grasp on the ‘bigger picture’ while also keeping abreast of the operational business-as-usual activities.
I am visionary and have the capacity to turn these into reality. I can articulate complex and technical information to all types of people.

My leadership style is open, fair and enabling and I work in an honest and ethical manner. I am an optimistic and energetic leader who establishes positive relationships with my team, colleagues and customers.

My values are those of courage, respect, loyalty and commitment.
I am an approachable person who is self-motivated and determined.

Specialties: IS Strategy;
Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence;
Project and Program Management;
IM Strategy, Vision, and Roadmap;
Business Process Management;
Enterprise Architecture

Dr Lee Mathias has enjoyed a long relationship with the NZ health sector as a clinician, teacher, manager, academic and director including CHEs, H&HS, DHBs, ACC, HPA, and other directorships including as Chairman. She was instrumental in the change to primary maternity services in NZ as founder of Birthcare and in the structure of diagnostic services as a co founder of Labtests. She continues her entrepreneurship, as a shareholder/director, through Pictor ( Pictordx.com) which has developed technology to miniaturise and multiplex ELISAs, and Tend.nz, a full service primary care provider which uses a ground breaking digital support to its in-person clinics.

Dr Mathias is an NZRN, holds a BA (Soc.Sci.), MBA (Auckland) and DHSc from AUT. Her doctoral subject was “The Shaping of Decision-making in NZ Public Healthcare Services”.

Dr Lloyd McCann is the Chief Executive Officer for Mercy Radiology and Clinics, and is the Head of Digital Health for Healthcare Holdings Limited.

He is a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators. Lloyd worked as a Beachheads Advisor for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. Whilst based in the UK, Lloyd worked as the Medical Director for Harris Corporation, Healthcare Solutions and was an elected member on the TechUK Health and Social care Board as well as a Technical Advisory Group Member for the Global e-Health Ambassadors Programme. He completed a mixed clinical and managerial fellowship at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust in Emergency Medicine and Performance Improvement. 

Lloyd has worked across public and private health in New Zealand in clinical, consultancy and leadership roles. He was a member of the Expert Panel that conducted the review of the NZ Health and Disability System over 2018-2020. He is currently also a member of the ACC Health Services Strategy Advisory Board.

Lloyd is an equity advocate and an advocate for digitally enabled, value-based care.

I completed orthopaedic training in New Zealand and completed the Fellowship in 1992. Following time overseas doing Fellowships, immediately following the completion of my formal training in New Zealand, I returned to the Orthopaedic Department, at Christchurch Hospital in October 1994. In the years since then I have continued to have a major role in the public hospital department and more recently also in private practice.
My main subspeciality areas of interest include paediatric orthopaedic surgery, along with post traumatic and congenital deformity reconstruction, and leg lengthening. I have had extensive experience in the management of orthopaedic trauma and continue to have an interest in the management of non-unions and bone infection. I am a high volume hip and knee arthroplasty surgeon and also have a significant foot and ankle component to my practice.
I have been a consultant to the New Zealand Artificial Limb Service since my return in 1994 and from 2012 I have been involved with leading the Osseointegration programme for amputees. I have recently become a member of the NZ Artificial Limb Service Board.
In addition to my involvement in public and private practice in Christchurch, I also spend two days a month providing general orthopaedic services to Greymouth on the West Coast of New Zealand.
After eleven years as Clinical Director of Orthopaedic Services in Christchurch, I relinquished this role in November 2016.
I am the Supervisor of the New Zealand Joint Registry and current President of the New Zealand Orthopaedic Association.

Chris has significant experience in complex and demanding procurement and supply chain environments in the private and public sectors. 

He has a degree in Aeronautical Engineering and has occupied professional leadership positions within the procurement and supply chain community in New Zealand, including being a former NZ Chair of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS). 

Chris is an alumnus of the 2013 Leadership New Zealand programme and the 2015 EY-Darden Executive Development programme. Since 2013 he has also been a trustee of Inspiring Communities, a not-for-profit organisation that promotes and supports community led development. 

In the UK he worked in the aerospace industry, starting off in procurement and then moving into production planning and production management.  He emigrated to New Zealand in 2001 with his wife and two daughters.

In his first New Zealand role he managed the capital procurement team at Auckland DHB. A large part of this involved working with the programme team on fitout and equipment for the new Auckland and refurbished Green Lane hospitals. He was later promoted to Materials Manager, where the team worked on the rollout of an Oracle based inventory management solution. 

It was the team at ADHB that first tempted him into distance running. 
After ten years at ADHB Chris then moved to Wellington where he led the procurement function for the Accident Compensation Corporation. The team established a centre-led function, moving from tactical tendering to a strategic end-to-end procurement model. 

In 2013 he returned to Auckland, leading the procurement team at Auckland Transport for a short while. His most recent role has been leading the Auckland Transport Strategic Projects team who develop the investment pipeline for large transport infrastructure. 

He strongly believes that the Procurement and Supply Chain contribution to the equity challenges faced by the system are fundamental to the transformation opportunities that lie ahead. Chris joined Health New Zealand as Director Procurement and Supply Chain on 20 June 2022.

Dr Malcolm Mulholland (Ngāti Kahungunu) is the Chair of Patient Voice Aotearoa (PVA).  PVA was formed in 2019 and advocates for better medicine access in Aotearoa.  Since the inception of the organisation, PVA has been involved in presenting over twenty petitions to Parliament for the funding of medicines that treat rare disorders, chronic illnesses and cancers, including a petition that called for Pharmac’s budget to be doubled and to reform the agency that was signed by over 100,000 people.  Since the inception of PVA, Pharmac’s budget has been increased and the first external review of the agency was conducted and released to the public last month.  

Prior to being appointed to the role of General Manager & Country Director, Medical New Zealand, Sarah relocated to Singapore in the position of APAC Senior Director for Ethicon’s largest platform, Wound Closure & Repair (WC&R). Sarah was a member of Ethicon’s Global and Regional Leadership Team. During this period, Sarah played an integral role in shaping the global WC&R strategy, accelerating market access in APAC through real world evidence, surgeon education and shaping future product and service innovation.

Sarah has held diverse senior leadership roles across Johnson & Johnson Medical and Janssen, in the disease state/specialty areas of General Surgery, Bariatrics, Orthopedics, Diabetes Management, Oncology, Immunology and Medical Affairs. Over her 14 years at J&J, Sarah and her teams have partnered closely with Health Economics and Government Affairs and Policy to accelerate market access and overcome reimbursement challenges.

Sarah is passionate about Women in Leadership in Med Tech and was a founding committee member of J&J’s ANZ Diversity and Inclusion ERG and strategy.

Sarah has a Bachelor of Business (Marketing) from University of Technology, Sydney, and a Master of Business Administration (with High Distinction) from Charles Sturt University. Sarah was also a graduate from the J&J ASCEND Global Women Senior Leadership Program in 2018.

Dr.Maxine Ronald is Ngāti Wai, Ngāti Hine, Te Kapotai and a General Surgeon working in Northland DHB. Her subspeciality interests are breast cancer and melanoma. 
Dr.Ronald is the first Indigenous RACS councillor, is a member of the Aotearoa New Zealand National Committee (Surgery) and immediate past chair of RACS Indigenous Health Committee. Within RACS she helped develop the Cultural Safety and Cultural Competency framework for trainees. 
She is a member of Te Ropu Whakakaupapa Urutaa (National Māori Pandemic Group), Hei Āhuru Mowai (Māori Cancer Leadership Group) and is clinical lead for Kotui Hauora and clinical advisor to the Interim Māori Health Authority. She was a member of the HQSC Perioperative Mortality Committee (2017-2020). She is an advisor to the interim Māori Health Authority and member of the Planned Care Taskforce.
Outside of her clinical role, Dr.Ronald is an advocate for Māori health equity and increasing the Indigenous surgical workforce in Aotearoa New Zealand and Australia. 

David grew up in Whangarei with two younger brothers, where his parents were a pharmacist and a draughtsman. As a teenager, he moved to Auckland for high school before graduating from the University of Auckland in electrical engineering and philosophy.

After starting work as an engineer, the phone rang and David moved to Canada where he worked as a policy analyst for a think tank. During this time he appeared on almost every Canadian media outlet on topics from taxes to taxi regulations.

After returning to New Zealand in 2011, David advised John Banks on the initial policy development for Partnership (charter) Schools, before the phone rang again for another job in Canada with Reform Party founder Preston Manning.

Today, David lives in central Auckland and, when he is not promoting ACT, tinkers with the sports car he built, plays guitar (when nobody else is in earshot), enjoys a craft beer and keeps up with friends and family.

Ms Sharon Shea has a BA/LLB (Auckland) and a Masters in Comparative Social Policy (Distinction) from Oxford University. Ms Shea has significant governance and leadership experience across the health, disability and community sectors. She lives in Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland.
She is has been a Board member and Sub-Committee Chair at both Auckland DHB and Northland DHB. She has also been a Board member of several primary health, community health and private sector organisations including NZ Railways Corporation, Alliance Health Plus PHO and an IT start-up.
Ms Shea was Chair of the Māori Expert Advisory Group on the Health and Disability Sector Review. Previous roles in health management have included regional and national roles in Māori health strategy, funding, Māori provider and workforce development (as part of government sector agencies).
Ms Shea is the owner/operator of a private public sector management consulting company, Shea Pita & Associates Ltd, and has extensive experience in system and service design, strategy, outcomes-based commissioning and data. Ms Shea’s experience is extensive in the health sector, and she also offers experience across education, corrections, justice, social services and broader Māori development/Whanau Ora and Whanau Resilience/Manawaroa.

Ko te pae tawhiti, whāia kia tata, o te pae tata, whakamaua kia tīna

Seek out distant horizons and cherish those you attain.

I believe in the following: how we treat people, matters; how we think and act matters; what we do, matters and how we serve others, matters. Inherent in this whakaaro, is a belief that implementing Te Tiriti o Waitangi with integrity is a powerful disruptor for positive good. Accordingly, any opportunity to provide leadership which supports transforming intergenerational cycles of disadvantage to advantage, and to support enduring and positive intergenerational change, matters to me.  
As a proud New Zealander and a proud indigenous woman and one-day grandmother, I would like to see every mokopuna in Aotearoa New Zealand flourishing, thriving, and realising the rangatiratanga they were born with. Persistent, unfair, and unjust inequities are an anathema to mokopuna oranga and the fabric of New Zealand’s society.
As Kiwis, we need to harness our aspiration to support and enhance the success and wellbeing of all New Zealanders and a big part of this is showcasing and cherishing the beauty and wisdom abundant in te ao Māori. Proactive, mutually supportive, and innovative relationships between Tangata Whenua and Tangata Tiriti are our future. We should embrace the change and reflect it within our new outcome-focused and equitable health system.

Andrew joined Permobil in March 2021 as the Country Manager to drive the business here in New Zealand and support the company’s aspirations across Asia and the Pacific. Whilst new to the health industry he brings a wealth of global commercial experience and leadership.

He has a passion for the end user of assistive technologies and a strong commitment to innovating for individuals. He believes that everyone has the right to lead an independent life. He is a former educational specialist with over 30 years of experience in school leadership and management, organisational improvement, system transformation in both the public and private education sectors across 4 continents. These assets are supporting the NZ health sector currently as they work through the new reforms. 

Currently Andrew is an executive member of the Assistive Technology Suppliers of New Zealand (ATSNZ), a member of the MTANZ Market Access Group and a beach head advisor for New Zealand Trade and enterprise (NZTE). He also Chairs the New Zealand Middle East Business Council (NZMEBC).

Having previously lived offshore for 20 years he brings a wealth of expertise and understanding on how to do engage with a variety of cultures. He has a strong cultural understanding of the many peoples he has worked with and a personal connection with Māori and Pasifika communities in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Tim is a Principal Policy Analyst in the Ministry of Health’s Therapeutics team. 
Tim moved to Aotearoa/New Zealand from Canberra, Australia in 2019, having spent the previous 10 years working in the Australian Public Service. In Australia, Tim worked across a number of projects at the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia’s main public funder of health and medical research) involving clinical trials policy, the development of the national Human Research Ethics Application system, and the establishment of the Australian Research Integrity Committee. 

Lisa spent her formative years in Ōtepoti (Dunedin) and Tāhuna (Queenstown) before starting her career in mental health policy at the Ministry of Health in Wellington.  She joined Te Pātaka Whaioranga - Pharmac in January 2008 as General Counsel following seven years in the UK working as an in-house lawyer for a large multinational pharmaceutical company. 

From 2013 to 2018 Lisa led the Pharmaceutical Funding Team within the Operations Directorate. She was appointed to the Senior Leadership Team in February 2018.

As Director of Operations Lisa oversees the Pharmaceutical Funding, Devices Funding, Procurement & Contracts, Pharmaceutical Assessment, Device Strategy & Development, and Schedule Strategy and Development teams.  

Outside of work Lisa is Mum to an 11-year-old daughter who is already challenging the limits of Lisa’s maths and technology capabilities.