Health Hawke’s Bay Executive Leadership Team

(Ngati Porou, Ngati Pahauwera) is the Chief Executive Officer of Health Hawke’s Bay and an experienced executive leader with a proven ability to drive organisational growth, transformation, and sustainable success. Known for his collaborative leadership style, he combines strategic thinking with practical execution to build strong teams, develop productive partnerships, and deliver meaningful outcomes.

George is passionate about leadership development, organisational culture, and continuous improvement, leading with integrity, accountability, and a focus on long-term value creation. Alongside his executive role, he holds governance positions across commercial, iwi settlement, and not-for-profit organisations, contributing his expertise to initiatives that strengthen communities and support positive social and economic outcomes.

Brendan grew up in Rotorua, moving to Hawke’s Bay in 2011 to an innovative role in general practice as a clinical pharmacist, becoming a director of the practice in 2015.  Brendan studied Pharmacy at Otago University, with post-graduate study in Clinical Pharmacy, Primary Healthcare, and Pharmacist Prescribing.  His most recent roles included being a pharmacist prescriber in long-term conditions and an ongoing role as System Lead for Medicines at Te Whatu Ora, Te Matau a Māui.

Brendan has widespread experience across primary care and pharmacy, prior to coming to Hawke’s Bay, Brendan owned a community pharmacy in Taranaki for 8 years.

The innovative work in general practice Brendan has been involved with has received recognition nationally for its integrated approach, medicine safety, and equity of health outcomes.  Brendan has a strong interest in enhancing health and wellbeing through interprofessional collaboration, with a particular focus on working alongside Māori and Pacific to help them achieve Pae ora – healthy futures.   

Matt is an experienced senior leader with over 20 years of IT experience. He has worked for a range of local and global organisations in a number of roles including, Unilever’s Global Enterprise Architect, Kiwibank’s Head of Technology Risk, NTT New Zealand’s Head of Cyber Security Practice and more recently Te Whatu Ora’s National CISO.

Also holding the CIO role at Tū Ora Compass, through the two organisations Head of Agreement, Matt’s skill set allows strong collaboration between the two Data and Digital teams, managing resources and skill sets between the PHOs.

Tracey joined Health Hawke’s Bay in April 2024. Her background spans multiple secondary health Human Resources roles, culture and organisational development roles.

She brings an array of skills and a deep passion for the health sector, ensuring the mahi of her team flow through Health Hawke’s Bay’s providers and practices.

In this role, Tracey guides and leads the enabling functions of the organisation, ensuring Health Hawke’s Bay adds value and provides support to Hawke’s Bay’s Primary Health Sector.

Enabling functions include finance, contracts, human resources, provider engagement, population health clinical pharmacy, Hauora Māori advisory and Pacific Health advisory.

Janice joined Health Hawke’s Bay in 2023, having worked in health with over 30 years of nursing experience. Her experience spans practice areas of Medical and Surgical, Occupational Health, Assessment, Treatment & Rehabilitation and specialised in Emergency Nursing.

As the Clinical Services Lead, Janice is responsible for leading the Clinical Services of our primary mental health programmes to ensure that the services provided uplift the health of the Hawke’s Bay community

Janice is also involved in the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal as a nurse member appointed by the Minister of Health.

Nicole joined Health Hawke’s Bay in March 2024 bringing experience from Air New Zealand and most recently, Eastern Institute of Technology as the Executive Assistant to a Dean and Faculty Administration Manager.

Nicole’s priorities are with the Governance group and committees, CEO of Health Hawke’s Bay, as well as the Te Matau a Māui Health Trust. She is the first point of contact for all matters relating to the Board and Governance, keeping relationships strong with the organisation.

Nicole will support co-ordinating governance meetings, collating and distributing governance information and monitoring organisational risk and strategy measures.