Executive Leadership team
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Te Whatu Ora Southern's Executive Leadership Team consists of executive managers based in Otago and Southland.
Hamish Brown is the Te Whatu Ora Southern Interim Lead - Hospital and Specialist Services
Hamish joined Southern DHB in March 2019 as Programme Director for the New Dunedin Hospital. From March to November 2021 Hamish worked as the SRO for the Covid Vaccination rollout programme, before moving into the Chief Operating Officer role. He previously worked as an Emergency Nurse, and in leadership roles on the West Coast and in the Canterbury District Health Boards.
Hamish brings a wealth of knowledge of our health system, staff, and community to the Interim Director role. His leadership experience, strategic thinking, empathy, and relationship building skills suit the Southern DHB well in our transition to Health NZ.
Jane Wilson, Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer
Jane was appointed to the role of Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer in August 2017.
Prior to this, Jane was Director of the Commissioner’s Office (since October 2015) and Director of Nursing Operations. Jane has held a number of other nursing leadership positions across Southern DHB in the last 30 years, including clinical nurse specialist and educator roles, charge nurse manager, service manager and nursing director.
Kaye Cheetham, Chief Allied Health, Scientific and Technical Officer
Kaye is Te Whatu Ora Southern's Director of Allied Health in the Strategy, Primary and Community Directorate. Before that she worked as the Allied Health Scientific and Technical Professional Development Facilitator and was also the professional lead for Occupational Therapy. Kaye’s background is as an Occupational Therapist and she taught at the School of Occupational Therapy at Otago Polytechnic for 16 years.
The Chief Allied Health, Scientific and Technical Officer role represents 24% of our workforce that includes 30 discrete professions each having their own professional identity, codes of ethics, practice competencies, workforce training and development needs. These workforces cover a range of health professions including regulated, self-regulated and unregulated staff.
Tanya Basel, Executive Director People and Capability
Prior to her appointment as Executive Director People and Capability, Tanya was the General Manager Human Resources at Southern DHB for more than 3 years. Originally from South Africa, Tanya has held various senior HR leadership roles such as HR Country Director and Vice President HR and served on executive management teams in multi-national companies. She has successfully led diverse teams across geographic locations in various industries such as Polymers, Petro-Chemical, Oil and Gas and Automotive. Her 25-year career has seen her working in countries as diverse as Mozambique, USA, Singapore, China, Canada, UK, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Germany, and Slovakia.
Well versed in strategic Human Resources practices, policies and procedures, Tanya has successfully led, managed, and advised on several business transformation initiatives, including organisational re-design, culture change and leadership development. Her passion lies in building effective, high performing, integrated HR, and executive management teams within matrix organisations. Her strength is in finding quick and intelligent solutions to daily business challenges without losing sight of the long-term goal. Tanya is keen to use her life-learning and previous experience to make a difference in the lives of staff who in turn deliver excellent care to our communities.
David Gow, Chief Medical Officer
David started in the Chief Medical Officer role for Te Whatu Ora Southern in August 2022. David trained in the UK and worked as a Neurologist and Clinical leader in Manchester before moving to NZ in 2014. He commenced at the then Southern District Health Board, now Te Whatu Ora Southern in April 2014. As well as working as a Clinical Neurologist in the region, David has served as the Chair of the Clinical Council. In the Chief Medical Officer role, David will work closely with the other professional leads to improve equity, patient safety, consumer engagement and staff wellbeing. His key focus is on the long-term goal of improving outcomes for our patients.
Patrick Ng, Chief Digital Officer
Patrick joined the Southern DHB in November 2017, and for five years held the role of Executive Director Specialist Services at Southern DHB - where he saw the importance of a strong digital infrastructure to transform how clinicians deliver and patients experience their care. He was formally the Chief Operating Officer at SDHB and has been a Deputy Government Statistician and took over the role of Chief Digital Officer at Southern District Health Board in November 2021
He is also a Chartered Accountant. Patrick holds an MBA, degrees in accountancy / economics and has a long-standing interest in data and information.
Patrick previously oversaw corporate services at Nelson Marlborough DHB. Before becoming a health executive, worked in chartered accountancy, the IT industry, oil and gas, outsourcing, electricity and gas, hospitality and telecommunications.
Mata Cherrington, Chief Māori Health Strategy and Improvement Officer
Ngāti Hine, Te Kapotai, Ngāpuhi, Ngāi Pakeha
Mata returned to the Southern DHB in February 2022 after leaving to have her first tamaiti in 2013. Her background has included working with communities across Aotearoa assisting in organisational development, strategy, and governance training. She has worked across sectors and has a strong passion for improving the hauora outcomes for whanau Māori. She believes that this will occur when we can identify our shared values, principles, and knowledge so we may all contribute our respective taonga to achieving greater impact that will influence better wellbeing for all communities in Southern and across Aotearoa.
Mata brings with her experienced leadership gained through her time in the military, corporate, and most recently as the Kaihautū/CEO of an Iwi hauora provider in Murihiku.
Nigel Trainor, Executive Director Corporate Services
Bio to come
Dr. Hwyel Lloyd, Director Quality & Clinical Governance Solutions
Hywel took up his first role with Southern DHB in May 2018 as the Medical Director for Strategy, Primary and Community. He has been a general practitioner at Mosgiel Health Centre since his arrival in New Zealand from Wales in 2003. He has held GP advisory positions at Taieri, Strath Taieri PHO and WellSouth PHO. He re-engineered the Care Plus programme for the Taieri practices between 2009 & 11 as part of Optimising the Patient Journey 2 programme. Focussing on ‘what matters most’, for those at highest risk.
Hywel has worked as a clinical editor for the Best Practice Journal and Director of Health Informatics at BPAC. He has held an honorary lecturer position at the Department of General Practice & Rural Health, University of Otago as well as Chief Medical Officer at South Link Health. Hywel has a passion for improving health care and patient safety through consumer centred care, quality data to build knowledge and integrated working.
Bridget Dickson, Programme Director New Dunedin Hospital
Bridget Dickson has worked at Te Whatu Ora Southern since 1998 when she joined Wakari Hospital as a physiotherapist. Since then she has worked in a number of Allied Health operational roles, and was also the Physiotherapy Professional Lead for the district. Bridget was initially involved in the New Dunedin Hospital as a member of the Clinical Leadership Group before joining the team as Clinical Project Manager in 2019. Now Programme Director, Bridget is leading Te Whatu Oa Southern's contribution to the country’s biggest health infrastructure project.