Leading the way

New Zealand made history in October when women outnumbered men in parliament for the first time ever (just!). This is in stark contrast to the recent Nelson City Council elections that saw the number of female elected members drop from seven to only two out of 13. Despite this, there are a number of women in leadership roles on boards across the region, helping shape our future.

Words: Judene Edgar | Tessa Jaine

Olivia Hall, chair of Tasman Bays Heritage Trust (Nelson Provincial Museum), Mātauranga Iwi Leaders Group and Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Rārua.

From doing dishes or making cups of tea in the marae to being on boards, Olivia Hall has always looked for ways to contribute to her whānau, her iwi and her community. “If they ask you, and you can do it, you say yes,” she says. “But because I often asked a lot of questions and have a lot to say, the role I was given was governance.” Her governance career started when her children were at Kohanga Reo and simply grew from there. When studying governance as part of her MBA, Olivia learnt about the mechanics of good governance to go alongside her leadership learnings in Te Ao Māori. As well as her governance roles, Olivia is an executive director at NMIT and values the necessary tension between governance and management. “The role of governors is to challenge but also support management. It can be too easy to come in parttime and have great ideas and walk away without understanding that they must be able to implement what you decide.” Olivia says that Covid provided some critical lessons on staff and board wellbeing. As a chair, she says that it’s important to remember that every board member has their own issues that they’re dealing with outside of the boardroom. “We’re all there for the greater good, even if we have different ways of showing up and expressing that.” Olivia says she likes working as part of a diverse and collaborative team based on trust, transparency and a clear sense of kaupapa (purpose). “I try to be very transparent and bring issues to the table for open discussion so that they don’t fester.” Currently she is chair of Tasman Bays Heritage Trust (Nelson Provincial Museum), chair of the Mātauranga Iwi Leaders Group and chair of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Rārua. While Olivia says that being “at the front” isn’t always comfortable for her, she loves the teamwork and outcomes of working collectively for the greater good. “I enjoy being able to effect change and find it exciting to align strategy with an organisation’s purpose to make that happen. This is just one way I can contribute to my iwi, whānau and community aligned with my skillset, but all roles are important in making a collective run.”

Sarah-Jane Weir, chair of the Nelson Marlborough Branch of the Institute of Directors, independent chair of Nelson Bays Primary Health Trust, co-chair of the Care Foundation, director of Nelson Regional Development Agency and a trustee of the Cawthron Institute Trust Board.

While working as the honorary solicitor for the SCAPE Art & Industry Biennial Trust chaired by Dame Adrienne Stewart, Sarah-Jane (SJ) Weir says that she could see the phenomenal outcomes that could be achieved and that great governance on a board could make a real difference and make things happen. The Christchurch earthquakes were impactful on how she thought about her career and family commitments, so after ten years of working as a partner in a law firm and commuting out of Nelson, she resigned her full-time role to pursue other opportunities. Already on the board of Nelmac and Fresh FM, she took over as chair at Fresh FM and was appointed to several other boards. “My main motivation for joining boards is outcome; whether it’s a commercial or a not-for-profit board, for me it’s about the purpose and working together to deliver that. I love being part of a team.” To support her governance career, SJ joined the Institute of Directors and gained a place on their mentoring for diversity programme. “Having different viewpoints, however you achieve that, is very important to helping you understand the workforce, stakeholders and societal changes,” she says. “There are different elements of diversity; you can’t have a board of all data-oriented people for example.” As a chair, she says that it’s important to create an environment where people feel confident to express their views. “Being the sole voice on a viewpoint can be very hard, so you need to ensure diversity isn’t one person and that the board culture enables all voices.” She also enjoys the opportunity to work with a broader range of people than law alone afforded her. “You get to work collaboratively with people from a wide range of skillsets and backgrounds. I’ve been so honoured to have worked with some superb board members and executives. At the end of the day, the board plans and has oversight, but success requires great staff implementation too – everyone working together.” With expertise in the data, privacy, IT, intellectual property, contracts and regulatory fields, SJ has found herself on an eclectic range of boards in the health, arts, infrastructure and economic development sectors, but all with the common thread of outcome for the community. Currently she chairs the Nelson Marlborough Branch of the Institute of Directors, is independent chair of Nelson Bays Primary Health Trust, co-chairs the Care Foundation, is a director of Nelson Regional Development Agency, and a trustee of the Cawthron Institute Trust Board.

Meg Matthews, chair of the Cawthron Board of Directors and the Nelson Regional Development Agency, member of TVNZ, Port Nelson, Kono LP, RealNZ and Halberg Foundation boards.

Aqualified accountant with more than 20 years’ experience in senior management including head of marketing, Australasia for Air New Zealand and chief executive of World of Wearable Art, Meg started her governance journey as a member of the Board of Trustees for Appleby School. “School boards are a great learning ground in that you come face to face with the shareholders every day in the school carpark.” She was then fortunate to secure a number of future director roles, gaining valuable first-hand experience on the Cawthron, Meridian Energy, Ngāi Tahu Property and Ngāi Tahu Tourism boards. “I’ve been incredibly lucky to have had exposure to some of the best decision-makers, governors and senior leadership teams in the country,” she says. “I was also fortunate to have some strong female directors on these boards that provided me with guidance and advice.” Those early board experiences have shaped her governance journey and her chairing of boards. “Strong boards have a complementary range of skills and diversity of experience, but are united in the freedom to contribute and speak. With that comes the responsibility to hear.” For Meg, hearing is a critical component of being around the board table – not just listening but actually being open to different perspectives and viewpoints. She also emphasises that “a chair needs to be someone that seeks out contributions from everyone, is able to learn from diversity around the table, and can facilitate a fair and inclusive process.” Inspired by the women directors who supported her, she’s recently joined the Institute of Directors’ Tuakana Teina: Chair Mentoring Programme, helping support the next generation of women chairs. Despite the ongoing challenges of Covid, economic pressures, employee recruitment, retention and wellbeing, Meg loves the diversity of boards that she’s on and the opportunity to continually learn and be challenged whilst also providing a degree of flexibility that you don’t normally get in a nine to five job. She also loves being part of organisations that are making a big difference to the communities they serve, a lesson she never forgot from her first Board of Trustees role. “Good governance can enable an organisation to fly and fulfil its full potential.”