Movers and Shakers – July 2023

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Anne Speden
Te Whatu Ora Hawke’s Bay executive director digital enablement, Anne Speden has left the organisation to pursue other opportunities outside the region.

Andrew Boyd, executive director financial services, said Speden was committed to placing people, whānau, and community at the centre of her work so that modern digital enabling services delivered measurable value, and she led the digital team with humanity, growing agile and modern business practices.

“A hallmark of (Speden’s) leadership is her laser focus on ‘business problems’ that needed to be solved. The result was the establishment of a modern, ‘people, process then technology’ service improvement approach and a positive, responsive, enabling culture,” he said.

Speden held a number of national and regional roles, including leading the National He Tangata, Our People workstream.

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Niru Rajakumar
Niru Rajakumar is celebrating his 10 year anniversary with Orion Health with his promotion to vice president of the APAC region.

He is refreshing Orion Health's strategy in New Zealand and Australia while also revitalising his teams on both sides of the Tasman.

“I'm passionate about digital tools transforming healthcare by placing the patient and their whanau in the centre of it,” he says.

“With the advancements of technology, such as, AI, virtual care, internet of things and others, we have a golden opportunity to reimagine the healthcare experience for patients and clinicians. We have to be laser-focused in prioritisation, execute swiftly, maximise value realisation and be outcome driven.”

Karen Poutasi
Karen Poutasi has been appointed as the new board chair for Te Whatu Ora.

Health Minister Ayesha Verrall says the role is vital for continuing to lead the Government’s bold health reforms and ensure quality health services are delivered for every New Zealander.

Poutasi is a medically trained doctor who has significant governance and leadership experience in the public health and education sectors.

She is chair of Taumata Arowai – the Water Services Regulator and Kāpuhipuhi Wellington Uni-Professional and has been a board member of Te Whatu Ora since its establishment.

Ben Walker
Ben Walker has joined Deloitte after three years as client director for Spark Health. He joins the well-respected Dunedin consulting team.

Walker will continue to work in digital health and also have the opportunity to utilise his experience in other sectors.

“It’s exciting to join a global organisation with such strong healthcare capability and expertise. The New Zealand team are involved in some of the most important health programmes, that are so well position to make a tangible difference to kiwis,” he says.

Angela de Zwart
Angela de Zwart has joined InterSystems as an application specialist.

Brian Biggs, director of customer relations and sales, InterSystems New Zealand, says de Zwart will engage closely with local and regional customers, understand their business and clinical requirements, and ensure their digital health implementations succeed and grow in value.

de Zwart has 20 years’ experience in nursing and clinical research. After working on the clinical systems project team at Waitemata DHB, de Zwart became a clinical consultant at Orion Health working on global clinical governance and implementation projects in New Zealand, Australia, Vietnam, Spain and America, before moving to product development as an SME.

Shane Rosenbrock
Shane Rosenbrock has stepped into the role of digital technology manager at WellSouth.

Rosenbrock is Dunedin born and bred and started his IT career as a helpdesk engineer before progressing into various infrastructure teams at many major Dunedin and Otago-based companies.

“For the last four and a half years, I have been working in Health IT and have found a real passion for knowing that the work I do ultimately ends up helping produce better health outcomes for people,” he says.

“All my previous roles have tended to lead me down the team management and infrastructure path, and I look forward to continuing that here at WellSouth.”

Mark Phillips
Southern Cross Healthcare has appointed Mark Phillips as chief digital officer.

Phillips is making the move to the healthcare sector after an extensive career in the building industry He was most recently Head of IT, GM Technology and GM e-Commerce at Fletcher Building.

Phillips has experience in managing both core systems and customer centric technologies and has led significant digital transformations, which Southern Cross Healthcare chief executive Chris White said will prove pivotal as the business continues to innovate within the health sector.

“As the country’s largest national network of private hospitals, and with a range of joint venture partners, we rely on a significant technical infrastructure to provide our patients with outstanding care,” White said.


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