Tangaroa Ara Rau is our leadership programme for our emerging Māori and Pasifika leaders to prepare them to lead our Māori and Pasifika staff . Through a series of interactive marae-based wananga, our leaders are immersed in Māori  and Pasifika tikanga and leadership principles. This programme is a finalist in the 2024 Diversity Works Awards. 

This programme recognsises the need for us to continue our work in the diversity space, and have our senior leaders take on sponsorship roles to ensure our leadership pipeline reflects the diverse makeup of Aotearoa. Our senior Partners sponsor our diverse talent and advocate for them to enter leadership positions. The programme focuses on leveraging our diverse leaders, creating a pool of sponsors within the business to elevate and instil confidence in our future leaders and educate our current leadership on the experience of employees from different backgrounds.  We were a proud finalist in the 2023 Diversity Awards for this programme. 

The KPMG Mentoring Programme has been running for over 7 years and is a flagship programme with many of our senior leaders in our mentor pool. It allows our people to capitalise on their personal and professional strengths through the process of reflection and discussion with a senior mentor. Mentees are matched with a senior leader in the firm across a year long programme of mentoring sessions. 

I joined the KPMG Tax team in 2005 as a graduate and spent 10.5 years with the firm before joining Fletcher Building Group at the start of 2016 as the Corporate Tax Manager. In 2018, I was promoted into the General Manager role, and I currently lead a tax and payroll team across Australia and New Zealand.

During my time at KPMG, I was given opportunities to develop my technical tax skills as well as people, client, and stakeholder management skills. Being able to deal directly with clients and be responsible for day to day issues helped strengthen my ability to connect with different people and be comfortable with making decisions on how the tax law applied.  Moving to Fletcher Building Group, which has over 25 major operating businesses within NZ alone, and stakeholders ranging from individual finance teams through to divisional CFOs, meant I could draw on that expertise to effectively perform in my role.

One of the biggest changes I noted between professional services and working inside a corporate is the need to change your mindset from simply advising to being accountable for the advice – following through from problem identification to problem solving, to ensuring the solution is implemented correctly.

There is also a need for practicality and commerciality when working in a corporate. Fletcher’s Group Tax function does not exist in isolation but must work alongside other corporate functions like Finance, Treasury and Strategy, collectively delivering a solution to a business problem. I found KPMG put a strong emphasis on being not just a tax advisor to clients but a business partner, encouraging me to think outside of just tax and considering the wider business when proposing solutions, which was a huge help in transitioning into my corporate role.

I was part of the KPMG whānau for 7 years and led consulting engagements for a diverse client portfolio across a range of private and publicly funded organisations and trusts throughout New Zealand.

I was a trustee of Nōna Te Ao for several years and this year stepped into the CFO role full time. My role spans design and delivery of our programmes directly to rural rangatahi Māori, building partnerships and driving team performance. Nōna Te Ao’s key objective is to empower our rangatira mō āpōpō, leaders of tomorrow, by providing an opportunity for rangatahi to understand how they can use their innate skills to enhance the prospects for Māori and for their own whānau. 

Nōna Te Ao’s aim is to provide their people with equitable educational and employment outcomes and improve the socio-economic status of our iwi and regions, allowing our rangatahi to have fulfilling careers at home (noho te kāinga) is our core priority.

KPMG is where I started my career, instilling in me everything I needed to step into the CFO role. The experience I gained from my time at KPMG ranges from understanding the funding landscape, writing successful applications, navigating partnerships, building networks and diverse revenue streams. KPMG gave me the foundations to demonstrate value to Nōna Te Ao’s partners, be able grow the charity sustainably and deliver on our vision.