Saturday 7 December 2019

Dr Jim Mather appointed Chair of Lakes District Health Board

The new Chair of Lakes District Health Board is Dr Jim Mather. He has served as Chief Executive Officer of three organisaitons over the last 16 years. A qualified accountant by profession, he has led Māori Television and Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. Dr Mather’s current governance roles include Chair of RNZ, Director of Auckland Transport, Member of MBIE Risk and Advisory Committee, and Director of Ngāti Awa Group Holdings Limited. Dr Mather has held a variety of private sector management roles and holds a PHD in Māori economic development.

Elected Board member Dr Johan Morreau has been appointed Deputy Chair of the Board.

The three new Ministerial appointees are Sir Michael Cullen (former Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, Minister of Tertiary Education and Attorney-General) in the Helen Clark Labour Government; Lana Ngawhika (Te Arawa/Tuhoe, who served the former Te Arawa Māori Trust Board on the treaty settlement that saw the return of 14 Rotorua lakes to Te Awara ownership, and is a business development manager with Fonterra); and Rees Tapsell (Ngāti Whakaue - Te Arawa waka). A psychiatrist, Rees sub-specialised in forensic psychiatry, working at the Mason clinic in Auckland as a consultant psychiatrist for 10 years where he worked on, and wrote about, models of forensic mental health service provision for Māori. He has worked in governance, operational, management and clinical leadership roles both in district health boards and Māori non-governmental organisations and was on the Lakes Board when it was set up in 2001.

The new appointed members replace Stuart Burns, Ana Morrison and Warren Webber.

Dr Jim Mather replaces Deryck Shaw, who has stepped down after three terms as the Chair.

Newly elected Board member is Ngahihi-o-te-ra Bidois, who joins re-elected members Johan Morreau, Christine Rankin, Janine Horton, Merepeka Raukawa-Tait, Rob Vigor-Brown and Lyall Thurston.

ends