Driving Discipline and Focus: An Integrator’s EOS® Journey at Provident Insurance
Every now & then, something lovely lands in your inbox when you least expect it.
This article was one of those moments.
Thank you, Jonno. I feel very happy to be recognised for work that I’m genuinely passionate about, especially alongside so many impressive leaders working in & from Auckland.
I’m honoured to be included as number 7 in this article recognising 50 influential leaders working in & from Auckland in 2026. The list highlights people across business, innovation, sustainability, health, the arts & community who are helping shape the conversations that matter in Aotearoa right now.
For me, the recognition feels especially meaningful because the work I do with business owners, leadership teams & family businesses is deeply personal. I love helping people have the conversations they have been avoiding, name the elephants in the room, create stronger alignment, & build businesses that give them more freedom, clarity & choice.
I’m reposting the article here because it is a lovely snapshot of the breadth of leadership talent connected to Auckland, & I’m proud to be included alongside so many impressive people doing meaningful work.
Read the original article here: https://www.consultclarity.org/post/influential-leaders-auckland-new-zealand
Auckland is the city where New Zealand's ambitions take shape. Home to a third of the country's population and the hub of its commercial, creative, and civic life, Tamaki Makaurau is where the most consequential conversations about Aotearoa's future are happening. As of June 2026, the leaders shaping those conversations span an extraordinary range of fields, from startup founders and sustainability advocates to science communicators and choreographers who have performed to audiences of billions.
This list puts together 50 of the most influential people currently working in and from Auckland across business, innovation, sustainability, health, the arts, and community life. Each person was selected for a documented, fact-checked contribution to their field. Rather than recycling the same handful of names that appear on every national list, the aim here is to surface the leaders genuinely shaping Tamaki Makaurau right now.
The breadth of talent concentrated in Auckland in 2026 is striking. The city is home to the third-largest privately held toy company in the world, a science communicator whose COVID-19 graphics reached tens of millions of people, a financial literacy advocate whose podcast topped charts on four continents, a choreographer who was creative director for Lady Gaga's 2025 Coachella headline performance, and the scientist who helped establish the intellectual framework for Auckland's new Innovation and Technology Alliance. These leaders have local roots and global reach.
If your executive team, board, or organisation needs support building the culture and strategic clarity that allows leaders like these to do their best work, email jonno@consultclarity.org. Jonno White, author of Step Up or Step Out and Certified Working Genius Facilitator, works with teams across New Zealand and globally on leadership alignment and team effectiveness.
Auckland generates approximately 38 percent of New Zealand's GDP and is home to the country's largest concentration of entrepreneurs, research institutions, and professional communities. According to the Deloitte APEC CEO Survey 2025, 66 percent of New Zealand CEOs are optimistic about their company's performance over the next year. That optimism is most visible in Auckland, where the Auckland Innovation and Technology Alliance, established in July 2025 under Mayor Wayne Brown, is bringing together the city's research, business, and government leaders to coordinate a shared innovation strategy for the first time.
At the same time, Auckland's most influential voices are not only building companies or running institutions. They are asking harder questions about how growth should work, who it should benefit, and what kind of city Auckland wants to become. The leaders on this list are part of that conversation across every sector.
Each leader on this list was selected for a documented, fact-checked contribution to their field in or from Auckland. Current role and current organisation are confirmed against primary sources within the last 12 months where possible. The list covers four categories: business and entrepreneurship, innovation and technology, sustainability and Maori and Pacific leadership, and health, arts and community.
Auckland's business and entrepreneurship community is producing companies with genuine global reach. The leaders in this category are founders, operators, and builders whose work extends well beyond New Zealand.
Founding Partner at Previously Unavailable and co-founder of Tracksuit, James Hurman is one of the most credible voices on marketing effectiveness and brand strategy in the world. His work includes the co-authored Effectiveness Code study with Cannes Lions and WARC, three books on advertising and brand building, and the Master of Advertising Effectiveness programme whose alumni include executives at Google, Amazon, Airbnb, and Disney. Tracksuit reached a valuation of NZ$152 million with over $10 million in annual recurring revenue and offices in Auckland, Sydney, London, and New York. His LinkedIn activity through late 2025 and into 2026 keeps him one of Auckland's most consistently followed voices on the intersection of brand, creativity, and commercial performance.
Speaking at Cannes Lions 2025 as a senior advisor at LIONS Advisory, Hurman continues to shape how global organisations think about creative effectiveness and the commercial case for brand. The Effectiveness Code, co-authored with Peter Field, is one of the most cited quantitative studies on what makes advertising work over the long term.
CEO of ZEIL and co-founder of ZURU, Anna Mowbray is one of Auckland's most versatile entrepreneurial forces. After 17 years helping build ZURU into one of the world's largest privately held toy companies, she returned to New Zealand and launched ZEIL in 2022, a job marketplace that reached the top of New Zealand's iOS finance app chart in 2025. She is a co-owner of Auckland FC, a founding co-owner of Recorp NZ, and a co-founder of Revved, the Auckland business and leadership summit. Her LinkedIn posts in May 2026 continued her commentary on AI in recruitment and the future of work. St Cuthbert's College named its enterprise hub in her honour in March 2025.
Her advocacy work in 2025 around social media access for young people, through the B416 parent-led lobby group, extended her public voice into the policy space. She successfully scaled ZURU from a New Zealand startup to a global manufacturing operation before returning to build entirely new ventures across employment technology, sport, and sustainability.
Founder of Friends That Invest (formerly Girls That Invest), Simran Kaur grew up in East Auckland and has built one of the world's most downloaded personal finance and investing podcasts from her base in the city. The podcast reached over 10 million downloads by 2025 and topped charts in New Zealand, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. A Forbes 30 Under 30 honouree, a TEDx speaker, and the author of a book that topped charts across four countries, Kaur has achieved a global platform from Auckland on making investing education genuinely accessible for women.
Starting as a University of Auckland optometry graduate with her best friend during the 2020 lockdown, she built a media company generating over 21.8 million views and reaching 6 million accounts per month on Instagram as of April 2025. In 2025 she was named on the Deloitte Fast 50 programme at position 20.
Founder and CEO of The Attention Seeker, Stanley Henry built one of New Zealand's fastest-growing content marketing agencies from Auckland before expanding into New York. With over 1.4 million LinkedIn followers as of February 2026, he is one of the highest-reach content voices New Zealand has produced. Growing up in South Auckland, Henry built The Attention Seeker from scratch in 2019 after leaving hotel management. The Auckland office continues operating alongside the New York operation as the firm targets NZ$35 million in revenue by 2028.
He hosted The Marketing Club AU/NZ at The Attention Seeker's Auckland office in 2025 and 2026, reflecting the agency's position in Auckland's marketing community. His willingness to document the journey of building a business in public, including early struggles and operational decisions, has made him a practical reference point for New Zealand founders.
Her focus on identifying the elephants in the room and enabling honest conversations in leadership teams positions her work at the intersection of coaching, facilitation, and strategic execution. Her practice is rooted in the conviction that most business problems are people and leadership problems, and that the most important breakthroughs happen when leadership teams can speak honestly with each other.
A business leader, author, and philanthropist based in Auckland, Dame Theresa Gattung was the first female CEO of a major NZX listed company when she led Telecom New Zealand. She co-founded My Food Bag in 2013 alongside Nadia Lim and Cecilia Robinson, and subsequently co-founded Tend Health, a digital primary healthcare provider. In the 2024 King's Birthday Honours she was promoted to Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to women, governance and philanthropy. In December 2025, Victoria University of Wellington awarded her an honorary doctorate in Commerce.
She funded the Theresa Gattung Chair of Women in Entrepreneurship at the University of Auckland Business School with NZ$2.5 million, and co-founded the Gattung Foundation with her sister Angela to support women's empowerment, Maori and Pasifika education, and poverty alleviation. Her LinkedIn activity in March 2026 included registering for the Global Women Members' Hui, reflecting her ongoing involvement in Auckland's women in leadership community.
Chief Executive Officer of Sky New Zealand since December 2020, Sophie Moloney was named Deloitte Top 200 CEO of the Year for 2025. She led Sky through one of its most consequential years, including a $1 acquisition of Three's New Zealand operations from Warner Bros Discovery and a major rugby rights deal, while managing a satellite reception crisis that required rapid operational response. Sky NZ is headquartered in Auckland and generated NZ$750.7 million in revenue in the 2025 financial year.
Her career trajectory, from legal roles at Sky UK through to general counsel and then CEO at Sky NZ, reflects an unusual depth of institutional knowledge combined with commercial acumen. Her values-driven leadership philosophy, centred on enabling people to bring their whole selves to work, has been recognised by her peers as a distinguishing quality of Sky's culture under her leadership.
CEO and co-founder of Clearhead, New Zealand's first AI-driven digital mental health platform for workplaces, Dr Angela Lim trained as a paediatrician at the University of Auckland before founding Clearhead in 2018 through the university's Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Velocity programme. Clearhead provides clinically backed assessment, triage, and personalised treatment pathway support for employers and employees. She is a TEDx Auckland speaker, a board chair of the 20/20 Trust, and a recipient of Asia New Zealand Foundation fellowship support.
She was featured in Auckland Economic Development's TechAKL profile as a practitioner transforming mental health care with AI. Her dual background as a practising clinician and a technology entrepreneur gives her distinctive credibility in a field where clinical rigour and commercial sustainability are often in tension. Clearhead has demonstrated measurable impact including a 20 percent reduction in employee turnover for some corporate clients.
Co-founder of MONDAY Haircare and DAISE Beauty, Jaimee Lupton is one of Auckland's most successful beauty and consumer goods entrepreneurs. MONDAY Haircare reached major retail distribution across the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, becoming one of the fastest-growing haircare brands in its segment. Her follow-on venture DAISE Beauty has extended the brand-building approach into a broader cosmetics range. She is listed in Favikon's NZ Top 20 LinkedIn Influencers for 2025, reflecting a significant and active professional presence on the platform.
Lupton's contribution to Auckland's entrepreneurial community is as a practitioner who has demonstrated how New Zealand-founded consumer brands can achieve international scale quickly by combining sharp product positioning with influencer-driven distribution. Her willingness to share the operational details of building a consumer brand has made her a reference point for Auckland-based founders in the beauty and direct-to-consumer space.
Head of Learning and Organisational Development at Hind Management and Sudima Hotels, and Network Chair of the HRNZ Auckland Network, Michal Pawlowicz won the HRNZ Leadership Award in 2026 for building leadership capability, employee engagement, and organisational culture across the Sudima Hotels group. His programmes, including Puawai Tahi, The Leadership Essential Series, and The Explorers Club, have driven measurable improvement in engagement and a significant reduction in staff turnover across a hospitality organisation that prioritises Maori and Pacific workforce development.
The hospitality sector combines high staff turnover, diverse workforces, and constant operational pressure. Pawlowicz's work at the intersection of Maori and Pacific cultural values and organisational development reflects a distinctively Auckland approach to building workplaces that are both commercially effective and genuinely inclusive. His 2026 award from HRNZ, the peak body for the HR profession in New Zealand, confirms the profession's recognition of the quality and impact of his work.
Co-founder of My Food Bag and Tend Health, Cecilia Robinson is one of Auckland's most prolific serial entrepreneurs. She co-founded My Food Bag in 2012 with her husband James Robinson, Theresa Gattung, and Nadia Lim, launching a business that grew rapidly to become New Zealand's longest-standing meal-kit delivery service. In 2020, she co-founded Tend Health, a digital-first primary healthcare provider using technology to improve access and continuity of care for New Zealanders. She won the EY Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2013 and was named Next Woman of the Year in the Business category in 2014.
Robinson's contribution to Auckland's entrepreneurial ecosystem is through the building of two consumer-facing businesses that have materially changed how New Zealanders eat and access healthcare. Her willingness to move from the established success of My Food Bag into a new and complex field, health technology, reflects an entrepreneurial appetite that has made her a significant figure in Auckland's innovation community.
Auckland's technology and innovation ecosystem is maturing rapidly. The leaders in this category are building the infrastructure, institutions, and ideas that will shape the city's economic future.
Founder of AcademyEX, a postgraduate institute in Auckland focused on technological advancement, education, sustainability, and leadership, Frances Valintine is one of New Zealand's most recognised figures at the intersection of technology and education. Over three decades she founded Media Design School, The Mind Lab, Tech Futures Lab, and AcademyEX. She was awarded a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit. In January 2026 she became Chair of Auckland Theatre Company's board, and she was appointed to the Auckland Innovation and Technology Alliance Leadership Group in July 2025.
Her recognition in the Makers and Shakers of Education Technology Index alongside some of the world's most influential education technology leaders confirms the international reach of her contribution. The Mind Lab became the largest provider of technology-enhanced learning for New Zealand teachers, and AcademyEX continues that mission at the postgraduate level.
Director of Koi Tu: The Centre for Informed Futures at the University of Auckland, Sir Peter Gluckman is one of New Zealand's most eminent scientists and science policy leaders. Born in Auckland, he served as the inaugural Chief Science Advisor to the New Zealand Prime Minister from 2009 to 2018. He is President of the International Science Council and founding chair of the International Network for Government Science Advice. In July 2025, he was appointed to the Auckland Innovation and Technology Alliance Leadership Group, where his statement that "cities are the primary units of innovation internationally" set the intellectual framework for the Alliance's work.
His call for Auckland to align its innovation ecosystem with the approaches of cities including Geneva, Toronto, and Station F Paris has shaped the Alliance's early priorities. At Koi Tu, his research focuses on the medium and long-term futures of New Zealand's economy, society, and environment, producing briefings that inform policy at the highest levels of government.
General Manager of the Economic Development Office at Auckland Council since July 2025, Pam Ford oversees the city's economic development strategy. She was previously Director of Economic Development at Tataki Auckland Unlimited, and was named Chair of EDNZ (Economic Development New Zealand). She played a central role in making Auckland Startup Week happen in October 2025, a five-day festival with 95 speakers that attracted international investor delegations from Denver and Fukuoka.
Her appointment coincided with the integration of economic development functions from Eke Panuku and Tataki Auckland Unlimited into the Auckland Council structure. She holds a Master of Technological Futures from AcademyEX, connecting her directly to Auckland's technology education community. The Economic Development Office she leads coordinates Auckland's response to the structural shifts reshaping the city's economic base.
CEO of NZ Tech, the industry body representing New Zealand's technology sector, Graeme Muller was appointed to the Auckland Innovation and Technology Alliance Leadership Group in July 2025. NZ Tech advocates for technology policy, digital inclusion, and the growth of the sector nationally. His advocacy on digital inclusion, broadband access, and the policy environment for technology investment shapes the conditions under which Auckland's technology firms operate.
NZ Tech's position as the voice of a sector that employs a substantial and growing proportion of Auckland's professional workforce means Muller's work has direct influence on how the city attracts and retains technology talent. His appointment to the Innovation Alliance alongside Frances Valintine, Sir Peter Gluckman, and Jolie Hodson reflects recognition of NZ Tech's central role in translating city ambition into industry-specific action.
Outset Ventures has supported multiple University of Auckland spinouts and early-stage companies, creating a track record of commercialisation that gives Auckland's research institutions a credible pathway to impact. His work builds the connective tissue between researchers, founders, investors, and corporate partners that allows ideas to move from the laboratory to the market.
Founder of the Auckland Tech Council, Simon Bridges was appointed to the Auckland Innovation and Technology Alliance Leadership Group in July 2025 alongside Sir Peter Gluckman and Frances Valintine. The Auckland Tech Council brings together Auckland's tech companies, investors, and institutions to coordinate the city's approach to technology growth, talent, and policy. His work focuses on the practical questions of how a mid-sized Pacific city builds the density and connectivity of networks needed to compete internationally.
The Tech Council under Bridges's leadership has worked to address one of Auckland's persistent structural challenges: the city's technology sector has produced globally successful companies, but the ecosystem's connections and collective advocacy have historically been weaker than the quality of individual companies would suggest. His partnership with the Auckland Innovation and Technology Alliance represents a significant step toward addressing that gap.
Her Auckland roots are specific: she has maintained her studio base and New Zealand workforce through two decades of international recognition, consistently choosing to build from Auckland rather than relocating to larger markets. Her approach of fusing tikanga Maori with digital game design has established Metia as an internationally recognised model for how indigenous cultural knowledge can be transmitted through interactive technology.
Her 2025 recognition as HR Person of the Year by HRNZ reflects the profession's view of her contribution to shaping the next generation of people and culture leaders in New Zealand. Her bridging role between academic rigour and professional practice makes her a distinctive voice in Auckland's people and culture leadership community at a moment when the HR profession is navigating the significant disruptions of AI adoption and changing workforce expectations.
Auckland is home to some of New Zealand's most credible voices on sustainability, ethical finance, Maori economic leadership, and Pacific community development. The people in this category are building institutions that are reshaping how Auckland thinks about its responsibilities to people and the environment.
Founder and CEO of the Sustainable Business Network, Rachel Brown has been one of New Zealand's most consistent voices on sustainable business for more than two decades. She founded SBN in 2002 and has built it into a network of over 600 organisations committed to climate action, circular economy, and nature regeneration. SBN has developed practical tools including the Climate Action Toolbox and the Circular Economy Accelerator. She was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2018, and in December 2025 was named a semi-finalist for New Zealand Sustainability Leader of the Year.
Rachel Brown's model is practical and grounded in the specific context of New Zealand business. Her board role at Mindful Money connects SBN's sustainability mission to the ethical investment space. SBN's relationship with government agencies and major corporates has given it credibility across the political spectrum, making her one of the few sustainability advocates whose work is taken seriously by businesses that are not already true believers.
Co-CEO of Mindful Money, the Auckland-based charity that helps New Zealanders find KiwiSaver and investment funds that align with their values, Barry Coates has spent three decades working at the intersection of sustainability, social equity, and systemic change. He was Executive Director of WWF-UK, led World Development Movement, was Executive Director of Oxfam New Zealand from 2003 to 2014, served briefly as a Green Party MP, and has led Mindful Money since 2019. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Auckland and a Master's from Yale. In November 2025, Mindful Money launched a major campaign on ethical investment in ocean health.
Mindful Money addresses one of the more invisible structural challenges in New Zealand's financial system: most New Zealanders have limited visibility into what their KiwiSaver funds are invested in. Coates brings unusual depth of international sustainability experience to this work, connecting Auckland's ethical investment ecosystem to decades of global NGO and policy advocacy.
A globally recognised New Zealand business leader and governance expert, Traci Houpapa chairs the Federation of Maori Authorities (FOMA) and sits on boards nationally and internationally, including the World Economic Forum's Global Futures Council on Trade and Investment. She has been named among the BBC's 100 Most Influential Women in the World and is a Chartered Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Directors. In November 2025 she was actively engaged in High Court proceedings challenging the government's approach to Maori rights over freshwater and geothermal resources.
FOMA, which she chairs, represents Maori agribusiness entities managing significant land and resource assets across New Zealand. Her Chartered Fellow status with the Institute of Directors, the highest level of its credentialing system, and her WEF Global Futures Council appointment make her a uniquely credentialled voice on the governance of large resource-holding entities. She holds an MBA from Massey University and the New Zealand Order of Merit.
Head of Te Ao Maori Strategy at ANZ Bank, based in Auckland, Karleen Everitt was named winner of the Dame Mira Szaszy Alumni Award at the 2024 University of Auckland Aotearoa Maori Business Leaders Awards. Her work at ANZ Bank focuses on embedding Maori perspectives and strategic priorities into one of New Zealand's largest financial institutions, navigating the intersection of corporate finance, tikanga Maori, and the growing significance of the Maori economy in New Zealand's financial system.
ANZ Bank's engagement with the Maori economy has been growing in significance as the Maori economy reaches an estimated value well above NZ$50 billion, and her role positions her at the centre of how one of New Zealand's largest financial institutions navigates that relationship. Her recognition at the University of Auckland's Maori Business Leaders Awards reflects the professional community's view of her contribution to embedding kaupapa Maori into major institutional settings.
Founder of KiwiHarvest and co-founder of the New Zealand Food Network, Deborah Manning has spent two decades building Auckland-rooted organisations that address food waste and food insecurity. The New Zealand Food Network works to redistribute surplus food more efficiently and reduce environmental pollution from food waste at a national scale. In 2024, Manning was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the community and the environment. In 2025 she won the Anthony Harper Community Leadership Award at the New Zealand Leadership Awards and was named a semi-finalist for the New Zealand Sustainability Leader of the Year.
The New Zealand Food Network has built practical infrastructure across the food redistribution system that has materially changed how New Zealand manages surplus food. Manning's ONZM and her multiple 2025 award recognitions reflect the food system and sustainability community's view of the durability and scale of her contribution.
CFO and Director of Corporate Services at The Fono, a Pacific community health trust operating from South Auckland, Jennifer Tupou won the New Zealand Finance Leader in a Growth Entity Award at the 2025 national NZ Finance Leader Awards. The judging panel commended her for redefining what it means to be a finance leader in the not-for-profit sector, specifically noting her transformation of The Fono's finance function from a compliance-focused operation into a strategic driver of organisational growth and mission delivery.
The Fono Trust serves Pacific communities in South Auckland, one of the most underserved populations in New Zealand's health system, and Tupou's transformation of its finance function has direct implications for the organisation's capacity to serve those communities. Her 2025 award signals recognition from the broader finance profession of a model of leadership that balances mission accountability with commercial rigour.
A storytelling leader, writer, photographer, and cultural disruptor based in Tamaki Makaurau, Qiane Matata-Sipu is the founder and creator of NUKU, a multimedia project amplifying the stories of indigenous women. Her book NUKU: Stories of 100 Indigenous Women was shortlisted at the 2022 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. She won the Arts and Culture category at the 2021 NZ Women of Influence Awards. Her children's book Nga Kupenga a Nanny Rina won the Wright Family Foundation Te Kura Pounamu Award at the 2025 NZ Book Awards. In November 2025 she published My First Ikura. She is also a co-founder and leader of the SOUL Protect Ihumatao campaign and a trustee of Makaurau Marae.
Her LinkedIn activity in 2025 and 2026, including detailed posts on Creative New Zealand's Audience Atlas 2025 research on arts participation and equity, reflects a leader engaged with the structural questions of how arts and cultural spaces can be made genuinely accessible for Maori, Pacific, and younger audiences across Auckland.
A respected Pacific community leader, former professional rugby player, and life coach based in Henderson, West Auckland, Eroni Clarke was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2026 New Year Honours for services to the Pacific community and rugby. He played for the All Blacks, Auckland, Counties, the Blues, and the Highlanders, and is on the Blues and Auckland Rugby Honours Board. He was the first Pasifika Engagement Manager at New Zealand Rugby, where he led the development of the NZR Pasifika Strategy 2024-2029 and established the NZR Pasifika Advisory Group Tausoa Fa'atasi.
He also worked as a Pacific Addictions Counsellor at Tupu Waitemata District Health Board and helped establish The Village Community Services Trust for marginalised Pacific and Maori youth. His combination of high-profile sporting achievement, community health work, and institutional role at New Zealand Rugby makes him one of Auckland's most significant Pacific community leaders. His 2026 MNZM reflects recognition of the breadth and impact of that contribution.
Auckland's influence extends well beyond the commercial sector. The leaders in this category are shaping the city's health system, arts landscape, scientific credibility, and community wellbeing. Several have achieved global recognition for work that started in Auckland.
Associate Professor and Head of the Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab at the University of Auckland, Siouxsie Wiles is one of New Zealand's most decorated science communicators. Her "Flatten the Curve" animated graphic, created with cartoonist Toby Morris in March 2020, went viral with over 10 million impressions in three days and was translated into multiple languages. She won the Prime Minister's Prize for Science Media Communication in 2013 and the Callaghan Medal from Royal Society Te Aparangi. She continues to publish active research, with work appearing in Applied and Environmental Microbiology in October 2025 and January 2026.
Her Employment Court case against the University of Auckland, in which the Court ruled in mid-2024 that the University had breached its contractual obligations to protect her health and safety following pandemic-related harassment, brought important questions about institutional responsibility for public-facing academics into the mainstream conversation. She remains active in both research and public engagement.
A full Professor at the University of Auckland specialising in leadership psychology, employee wellbeing, and indigenous perspectives, Maree Roche is Manutaki (Director) of the Dame Mira Szaszy Centre for Leading Maori Workforce Development. Her research demonstrates that leaders' own wellbeing significantly shapes the wellbeing of those they lead. She is a Fellow of both the New Zealand Psychological Society and the Positive Organisational Behaviour Institute in the United States. Her published research and regular LinkedIn activity in 2025 and 2026, focused on mindfulness in leadership and indigenous frameworks for wellbeing at work, make her one of Auckland's most credible voices on the science of leadership.
Her role as Manutaki of the Dame Mira Szaszy Centre places her at the leading edge of applying te ao Maori frameworks to organisational development in ways that are directly relevant for New Zealand organisations with Treaty obligations shaping their people strategy.
CEO of the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand, Astley Nathan leads Auckland's most prominent mental health advocacy and education organisation. He was recently appointed as Deputy Chair of Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Maori (the Maori Language Commission). His LinkedIn posts in 2025, including reflections on Pacific community wellbeing and a presentation at the 2025 Audio Summit on podcasting and mental health engagement, reflect a leader active across multiple public platforms.
His leadership of the Mental Health Foundation puts him at the centre of one of the most significant policy conversations in New Zealand in 2026. The Ministry of Health's national Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy consultation, open through May 2026, is proposing a ten-year direction for how the health system improves mental health outcomes for New Zealanders. The Foundation's advocacy and community grants provide the practical infrastructure that connects that strategy to the community level.
Former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Dame Jacinda Ardern stepped down from Parliament in April 2023 and has since been based in Auckland. She published her memoir, A Different Kind of Power, with Penguin Books in June 2025, winning the Best First Book Award at the 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. She was a 2023 Angelopoulos Global Public Leaders Fellow and a Hauser Leader at Harvard Kennedy School. Her LinkedIn presence remains substantial, addressing climate action, empathetic leadership, and reflections on public life.
Jacinda Ardern's continued influence in 2025 and 2026 is principally discursive: she shapes conversations about what leadership looks like and what political empathy requires. Her memoir received serious literary recognition at the Ockham Awards, confirming her credibility as a writer. Her Field Fellowship, aimed at fostering kindness in politics, reflects an ongoing investment in developing the next generation of leaders from her Auckland base.
Born and raised in Manurewa, South Auckland, Parris Goebel is the founder of The Palace Dance Studio and the Royal Family Dance Crew, which won the World Hip Hop Dance Championship MegaCrew division three consecutive times from 2011 to 2013. She is the choreographer behind some of pop culture's most viewed performance moments, including Justin Bieber's "Sorry" video, Rihanna's 2023 Super Bowl halftime performance, and the Beyonce Bowl. In 2025 she was creative director for Lady Gaga's Coachella headline performance and choreographed the "Abracadabra" video, for which she won a VMA. In 2026 the Royal Family launched its world tour Defend the Throne from Auckland.
The Palace Dance Studio, which she still leads from Auckland, has fostered and launched the careers of dancers from across New Zealand and internationally. Her Samoan heritage and her roots in Manurewa give her work a specific Tamaki Makaurau identity that has made her a figure of genuine pride and connection for Auckland's Pacific communities. She was awarded the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2015.
CEO and Artistic Director of Auckland Theatre Company since 2021, Jonathan Bielski leads Auckland's flagship theatre institution. Under his programming, ATC achieved its fastest-selling production ever with Murder on the Orient Express in 2025, which returned for a 2026 season by popular demand. The 2026 season includes two world premieres and productions developed in partnership with Auckland Live, the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts, and Tawata Productions.
The 2026 season's inclusion of "Sons of Vao" by Niuean writer Vela Manusaute as a world premiere, and a production on Helen Clark's political legacy, reflects his commitment to programming genuinely engaged with Auckland's specific history and community. His partnership model, bringing ATC and Auckland Live together for Cabaret and RGB, is building the institutional capacity for ATC to present work at greater scale.
A senior leader at Beca, one of Auckland's leading engineering and infrastructure consultancies, Amelia Linzey won the Inspiring Women Leaders Award at the 2025 New Zealand International Business Awards, with judges recognising her for transformational leadership in engineering and her commitment to empowering others and inspiring the next generation of women in international business.
Beca, headquartered in Auckland, has shaped much of the city's built environment and plays a central role in how Auckland navigates its infrastructure investment priorities. Linzey's 2025 recognition as an inspiring women's leader in engineering reflects both her individual accomplishment in a senior role in Auckland's engineering sector and her broader impact on building a more inclusive professional community in a discipline where women have historically been significantly underrepresented.
Co-founder of My Food Bag and a trained dietitian, Nadia Lim is one of New Zealand's most recognised food personalities, based in Auckland and at Royalburn Station in Central Otago. She was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2025 New Year Honours for her contributions to New Zealand food culture and business. My Food Bag, which she co-founded in 2013 with Cecilia Robinson, Theresa Gattung, and James Robinson, became New Zealand's longest-standing meal-kit delivery service. She continues her active involvement with the company as co-founder and recipe lead, and launched a diabetes-friendly recipe partnership with Diabetes New Zealand in April 2025.
Nadia Lim's contribution is through the combination of food media, cookbook publishing, and the building of a consumer business that has genuinely changed how a significant proportion of New Zealanders approach home cooking. Her April 2025 partnership with Diabetes New Zealand to provide free diabetes-friendly recipe resources reflects her ongoing use of the platform she has built to address genuine public health needs.
Co-founder of My Food Bag and Tend Health, Cecilia Robinson is one of Auckland's most prolific serial entrepreneurs. She co-founded My Food Bag in 2012 with her husband James Robinson, Theresa Gattung, and Nadia Lim, launching a business that grew rapidly to become New Zealand's longest-standing meal-kit delivery service. In 2020 she co-founded Tend Health, a digital-first primary healthcare provider using technology to improve access and continuity of care for New Zealanders. She won the EY Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2013.
Robinson's contribution to Auckland's entrepreneurial ecosystem is through the building of two consumer-facing businesses that have materially changed how New Zealanders eat and access healthcare. Her willingness to move from the established success of My Food Bag into the complex field of health technology reflects an entrepreneurial appetite that has made her a significant figure in Auckland's business community.
An Auckland-based broadcaster, author, and te reo Maori advocate, Stacey Morrison is one of New Zealand's most visible Maori public voices. She is the author of multiple books on te reo Maori learning, including the Te Reo a Rohe series, and has been a prominent broadcaster on television and radio in New Zealand for two decades. She is a passionate advocate for the revitalisation of te reo Maori and has been widely recognised for her work making the Maori language accessible to a broad audience through media and publishing. She was nominated for the Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Awards.
Her contribution to Auckland's cultural life is principally through the accessibility and warmth she brings to Maori language revitalisation, making te reo feel approachable for Aucklanders from all backgrounds. In a city where nearly 30 percent of residents identify with Pacific ethnicities and a significant proportion have Maori ancestry, her work on language accessibility has particular relevance to Auckland's specific cultural character.
One of New Zealand's most prominent journalists and documentary makers, Patrick Gower is based in Auckland and is listed in Favikon's NZ Top 20 LinkedIn Influencers for 2025. With over 25 years of experience, he has reported from conflict zones including Afghanistan and Iraq and covered major international events including the US presidential campaign trail and the Queen's funeral. He has won multiple awards for his investigative and documentary journalism, including his widely viewed documentary on New Zealand's methamphetamine crisis. He is active on LinkedIn, sharing commentary on New Zealand media and politics.
Gower's significance to Auckland is as the country's most visible practitioner of high-stakes long-form journalism and documentary work. In a media environment under significant financial pressure, his continued commitment to investigative and documentary journalism that addresses New Zealand's most difficult social challenges makes him one of Auckland's most consequential public voices.
CEO of Foodstuffs North Island and Managing Director of Foodstuffs NZ, Chris Quin is listed in Favikon's NZ Top 20 LinkedIn Influencers for 2025. With over 30 years of experience in the New Zealand retail and grocery sector, he leads one of the country's largest food retail organisations from Auckland. Foodstuffs North Island operates the New World, PAK'nSAVE, and Four Square retail brands across the North Island, serving a substantial proportion of New Zealand's population with their weekly grocery needs. His LinkedIn presence is active, focused on customer insight, community engagement, and operational leadership in the grocery sector.
Quin's influence on Auckland's daily life is direct and concrete: Foodstuffs North Island's retail operations are embedded in every suburb of the city, and his leadership decisions on pricing, product range, community engagement, and sustainability commitments affect hundreds of thousands of Auckland households. His regular public commentary on cost of living, supply chain issues, and food system resilience makes him one of Auckland's most relevant corporate voices on the issues that most directly affect ordinary Aucklanders.
A Niuean writer, performer, and playwright based in Auckland, Vela Manusaute is the author of "Sons of Vao", which received its world premiere at Auckland Theatre Company in 2026. The play follows three sons of Vao who struggle to break free from their father's destructive hold, drawing on Niuean community and family experience. He is a member of the Auckland creative community with a background in Pacific theatre and performance, and has been involved with Auckland-based Pacific arts organisations over a sustained period.
His selection by Jonathan Bielski for an ATC world premiere in 2026 reflects the theatre company's commitment to platforming Pasifika voices and bringing new Pacific stories to mainstream Auckland audiences. In a city where Pacific communities constitute a significant proportion of the population, the platforming of Niuean storytelling at Auckland's flagship theatre represents a meaningful step in broadening what Auckland's cultural institutions represent and celebrate.
Host of the New Zealand Tech Podcast and founder of Gorilla Technology, Paul Spain is one of Auckland's most active technology media personalities. The New Zealand Tech Podcast covers technology, innovation, and digital transformation with a specific focus on the New Zealand context, providing regular commentary on how global technology trends affect local businesses and communities. He is a frequent keynote speaker and media commentator on technology matters, and covers Auckland's technology ecosystem across podcast, radio, and written media formats.
Spain's contribution to Auckland's technology community is through the accessibility and consistency of his technology commentary. By making technology trends understandable and relevant to a New Zealand business audience, he helps bridge the gap between the global technology conversation and the practical realities facing Auckland businesses navigating digital transformation. His presence across multiple media formats gives him a reach that spans both technology practitioners and business generalists.
Founder of Xero, the cloud accounting software company that has grown to serve millions of small businesses across more than 180 countries, Rod Drury is one of New Zealand's most successful technology entrepreneurs and is based in Auckland. He received the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business and technology. Xero, which he founded in 2006 in Wellington, has its New Zealand headquarters in Auckland and has become one of the most recognised New Zealand technology brands globally. He has been involved in mentoring and investing in New Zealand's startup ecosystem through the years following his transition from Xero's executive leadership.
Drury's significance to Auckland's technology community is as the most successful example New Zealand has produced of a software company achieving genuine global scale. Xero's market capitalisation and its millions of global customers demonstrate that a New Zealand-founded technology company can build a world-leading business from the Pacific edge, a demonstration that has provided both inspiration and practical validation for Auckland's technology founders and investors.
Former CEO of Air New Zealand and a recognised LinkedIn Top Voice in New Zealand, Ed Sims is an Auckland-based business leader with an active public profile on leadership, business strategy, and the future of work. At Air New Zealand he led the airline through a major expansion period and was recognised for his transparent and direct communication style, including regular video updates to staff that became a model for leadership communication during periods of organisational change. He is listed as a recognised LinkedIn Top Voice by Favikon for New Zealand in 2025.
His ongoing LinkedIn presence and public commentary on business leadership, purpose, and organisational culture makes him a consistent Auckland voice on the leadership questions that matter most to New Zealand executives. His experience leading a major New Zealand enterprise through periods of both significant growth and significant adversity gives his commentary a grounding in practical leadership that distinguishes it from purely theoretical perspectives.
A business leader specialising in social housing enterprises in Auckland, Bernadette Pinnell won the Community Hero Award at the 2022 New Zealand Women of Influence Awards. She holds a doctorate focused on urban renewal projects from the University of New South Wales. Her work in Auckland's social housing sector has been recognised as a significant contribution to addressing one of the city's most persistent and complex challenges: the supply of safe, affordable housing for people experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity.
Auckland's housing crisis is one of the most significant factors affecting the city's social cohesion and community wellbeing, and Pinnell's sustained focus on community-led social housing enterprise addresses that challenge from a practical, place-based perspective. Her expertise in urban renewal and her community-centred approach to housing delivery reflects the specific complexity of Auckland's built environment and the diverse communities the city is home to.
An Auckland-based broadcaster, author, and speaker, Toni Street has been one of New Zealand's most recognised television personalities across two decades with TVNZ's Breakfast and Seven Sharp programmes. Her memoir Lost and Found was a bestselling book in New Zealand and established her as a writer alongside her broadcasting career. In 2026 she joined Girls in Business as a headlining speaker alongside Iyia Liu and other Auckland women in business, reflecting her ongoing role in Auckland's professional women's community.
Street's contribution to Auckland's cultural and professional landscape is through the warmth, authenticity, and transparency she has consistently brought to New Zealand's morning television audience, and the way she has used her public platform to speak openly about personal challenges including family health issues, in ways that have connected with a very large and loyal Auckland audience. Her transition from television to a broader portfolio of speaking, writing, and community roles reflects a sustained public career rooted in Auckland.
Co-founder and Managing Director of Replas, an Auckland-based company that transforms waste plastic into valuable commercial products, Harry Burkhardt won the Outstanding Maori Business Leader Award at the 2024 University of Auckland Aotearoa Maori Business Leaders Awards. Replas has developed a sustainable manufacturing model that diverts significant volumes of plastic waste from landfill and the natural environment, producing durable products for landscaping, agriculture, and public infrastructure markets. His leadership of Replas reflects a model of Maori entrepreneurship that combines commercial viability with environmental and community purpose.
His recognition at the University of Auckland's Maori Business Leaders Awards, the premier event recognising Maori business success in New Zealand, reflects the business community's view of his contribution to demonstrating what environmentally purposeful enterprise can look like when it is built from Maori values and grounded in a specific community and place.
Chief Executive of TVNZ, Jodi O'Donnell leads New Zealand's primary public broadcaster from its Auckland headquarters. In late 2025 she was quoted in NZ Herald's end-of-year CEO roundup describing her mood heading into 2026 as "ambition", noting that TVNZ had a big 12 months ahead. She oversees a broadcaster navigating a major period of transition, including the integration of Three NZ's operations following Sky's acquisition of that business from Warner Bros Discovery in 2025, and the competitive pressures of streaming on traditional linear television audiences.
TVNZ's role as New Zealand's primary free-to-air public broadcaster gives O'Donnell's leadership a significance that extends well beyond the commercial media sector. The decisions she makes about programming, news coverage, and the balance of commercial and public service objectives shape what a very large proportion of Auckland households see and hear about their city and country. Her navigation of TVNZ through a period of significant industry disruption and consolidation is one of the more consequential leadership challenges in Auckland's media landscape.
A Pacific actor, director, and community leader based in West Auckland, Fasitua Amosa was re-elected to the Whau Local Board in the 2025 Auckland Council elections. He is a prominent figure in Auckland's Pacific arts and performance community, with a background spanning stage, screen, and community theatre. His re-election to local government reflects the recognition of his contribution both as an arts practitioner and as a community representative for West Auckland's Pacific communities, which are among the most significant in the country.
Amosa's significance to Auckland is as a leader who spans both the arts community and the civic space, bringing Pacific creative perspectives into the local government context where decisions about parks, planning, community facilities, and cultural programming are made. His presence on the Whau Local Board ensures that Pacific community voices are represented in the civic decision-making that directly shapes West Auckland's built and cultural environment.
Several Auckland leaders deserve acknowledgment even though they did not make the final 50. Ed Sims is included above. Nick Mowbray, the Auckland co-CEO of ZURU whose family topped the 2026 NBR Rich List with an estimated NZ$20 billion in wealth, is one of the most commercially successful entrepreneurs the city has produced. Rangi Matamua, the Massey University professor named 2023 New Zealander of the Year for his work on Matariki and Maori astronomy, has deep Auckland connections but is primarily Waikato-based. Alicia McKay, a prominent leadership thinker and author, is Wellington-based. The depth of Auckland's leadership community means the 50 on this list are among many who deserve recognition.
The first mistake is confusing visibility with influence. Auckland's media ecosystem, particularly LinkedIn, creates strong incentives to equate posting frequency and follower counts with leadership quality. Several of the most genuinely influential leaders on this list maintain relatively modest social media presences because their influence operates through institutional relationships, research credibility, and the quality of what they build.
The second mistake is treating Auckland's leadership as a single ecosystem. The city's business, technology, arts, Maori, Pacific, health, and sustainability communities each operate with their own networks, credibility structures, and norms of leadership. Organisations looking to develop diverse leadership need to deliberately reach into the different communities where Auckland leadership actually lives.
The third mistake is underestimating how quickly the Auckland talent landscape changes. Jolie Hodson became CEO of Spark in 2019. Anna Mowbray launched ZEIL only in 2022. Pam Ford stepped into the Auckland Council Economic Development Office role only in July 2025. Regular updating of assessments and building ongoing relationships matters far more than one-off snapshots.
The fourth mistake is waiting for leadership to look established before investing in it. Several of the most consequential leaders on this list are in early stages of building what will be their most significant contributions. The leaders who will shape Auckland in 2030 are already working in the city now, often in roles that do not yet carry the institutional recognition they will earn over the next decade.
Most of the people on this list are accessible through LinkedIn, where several maintain genuinely active posting practices. Following James Hurman, Anna Mowbray, Simran Kaur, Rochelle Moffitt, Stanley Henry, and Maree Roche, among others, will give you regular access to original thinking from the city's most intellectually active practitioners.
For organisations that want to engage more deeply, the Auckland events ecosystem provides substantial access. The Revved Business and Leadership Summit, co-founded by Anna Mowbray and Rochelle Moffitt, held its 2026 edition in Auckland and attracted 800 leaders from across New Zealand. Auckland Startup Week returns for October 12 to 16, 2026. The Bold Steps Conference brings together women leaders across Auckland's business community each year.
For teams specifically looking at leadership development, Working Genius facilitation, or building the kind of organisational culture where leaders like those on this list can do their best work, email jonno@consultclarity.org. Jonno White delivers executive team offsites, workshops, and keynotes for schools, corporates, and nonprofits across New Zealand and globally. Many organisations find that international travel is far more affordable than expected.
Auckland's most influential leaders in 2026 span multiple sectors. In business, James Hurman, Anna Mowbray, Simran Kaur, Jolie Hodson MNZM, Sophie Moloney, and Dame Theresa Gattung DNZM have built or lead organisations with significant national and global reach. In innovation and technology, Sir Peter Gluckman, Frances Valintine CNZM, Pam Ford, Graeme Muller, and Maru Nihoniho MNZM are shaping the ecosystem. In sustainability and Maori and Pacific leadership, Rachel Brown ONZM, Barry Coates, Traci Houpapa MNZM, Karleen Everitt, and Qiane Matata-Sipu are building institutions and cultural influence. In health, arts, and community, Siouxsie Wiles MNZM, Maree Roche, Jacinda Ardern, and Parris Goebel MNZM are the city's most visible voices.
Auckland generates approximately 38 percent of New Zealand's GDP and is home to the country's largest concentration of entrepreneurs, research institutions, and professional networks. The city's proximity to Asia-Pacific markets, its large Maori and Pacific communities, its world-ranked university, and its density of creative and commercial talent create a distinctive leadership environment. The Auckland Innovation and Technology Alliance, established in July 2025, represents a significant new effort to position the city as a globally competitive Pacific innovation hub.
Auckland's leadership ecosystem is particularly active in technology and software, financial services, sustainability and ethical investment, education technology, health and science communication, arts and culture, and Maori and Pacific enterprise. The startup and venture capital community is growing rapidly, with the first Auckland Startup Week taking place in October 2025 with 95 speakers and international investor delegations. Auckland Theatre Company, the Sustainable Business Network, and the Mental Health Foundation anchor the arts, sustainability, and health sectors respectively.
LinkedIn is the primary professional networking platform where most of Auckland's active thought leaders share original content. Key events include the Revved Business and Leadership Summit, Auckland Startup Week (October 12 to 16, 2026), and the Bold Steps Conference. For executive team facilitation, leadership workshops, and Working Genius sessions, email jonno@consultclarity.org.
Auckland is a city building something. The 50 leaders on this list are part of very different conversations and working in very different contexts, but they share a quality that is common to the most consequential leaders in any city: they are doing something specific and consequential enough that the field, the city, or the world is materially different because of their contribution.
The work of recognising and connecting with that kind of leadership is never finished. Several of the people on this list were not widely known outside their own fields five years ago. Several of the people who will be on this list in five years are building their foundations right now. Auckland's leadership is not fixed; it is continuously emerging from the quality and courage of the work people are doing in the city.
For organisations, boards, and teams that want to build the culture and capability to work with and develop leaders of this quality, Jonno White is available to facilitate the conversations that make the answer practical. Email jonno@consultclarity.org
