Our leadership team

Dan Pallister-Coward is the Regional Director for Hospital and Specialist Services for Te Waipounamu. Dan held leadership positions within the former Canterbury District Health Board for nine years, including General Manager for Burwood Hospital and the services covering Older Person's Health, orthopaedics, community rehabilitation services and community dental services. For the past six months he was interim National Chief Operating Officer.

Dan sees the Regional Director role as an exciting challenge in today’s environment of innovative change with focus on equity. “I look forward to strengthening our relationships across the community in partnership with iwi, growing the trust to influence change, while growing the teams to meet future demands on our services."

Dan brings strong leadership, partnership and relationship skills that continue to be applied wider than the health sector, with a passion for continuous development, curiosity and self-awareness that enables him to transition across environments.

The Regional Wayfinder role is responsible for providing rangatiratanga leadership to multiple locally-based Commissioning teams across the relevant region in order to ensure that locality teams are able to support their local communities and whānau in the pursuit of Pae Ora.

Chiquita has held a variety of nursing leadership roles and has been Chief Executive of the MidCentral district’s Primary Health Organisation, THINK Hauora since 2013. Chiquita is passionate about whanau and community led solutions and has strongly advocated a pro-equity approach to health service delivery.

Lisa has been seconded for a period of five months from South Canterbury, where she is currently Director Patient, Nursing and Midwifery. With extensive clinical leadership experience, Lisa has an eye for operational success and excellence.

She has held operational leadership roles in health for more than twenty years, beginning her journey in Southland before extending and expanding her career with Queensland Health. Lisa is looking forward to working with the Waitaha Canterbury team as we continue to provide quality health services to our community.

Tanya leads the Community & Public Health team who promote Health in All Policies, to support healthy environments. This involves developing policies to support communities and whānau to make living a healthy lifestyle the easy choice. She works with public health specialists, councils, government agencies, and community and NGO organisations.

Tanya is of Cook Islands Māori (Aitutaki) and Samoan (Siusega) descent. She has considerable experience in the health sector and in the Pasifika community and has worked for Canterbury DHB since February 2003 in a variety of roles but most recently as the Manager of the Policy Team and Health Protection Team (Environment). Tanya holds a number of governance roles across the health sector particularly focused on Pasifika and Public Health and is a public health consultant to the Ministry of Health in the Cook Islands.

Jo joined Canterbury DHB in November 2020 and stepped into the Interim Chief People Officer role in March 2022. Jo has an extensive HR leadership career spanning Organisational Development, learning, recruitment, generalist ER/HR and consulting positions in both the private and public sectors, as well as having held senior operational leadership roles in the NGO sector.

Her passion for people shows through her commitment to building an equitable and inclusive workplace, and in honouring Te Tiriti in all she does. Jo has formed strong relationships across our clinical and senior leadership teams and has been integral in the ongoing work to reshape our People and Capability function to become more accessible, responsive and customer focused.

Becky works closely with the Directors of Nursing and other nursing leaders across the Canterbury health system. As EDON she holds several portfolios including Care Capacity Demand Management, Infection Prevention & Control Nursing, Nursing Workforce Development, and Corporate Quality and Patient Safety teams. Becky is also the Canterbury Executive Lead for Manawa Governance which includes simulation, research and education as well as for Te Papa Hauora (Health Precinct) Advisory Council.

Becky is a Registered Comprehensive Nurse and has worked in nursing since 1982, completing both a Postgraduate Diploma in Leadership and Management as well as a Masters in Health Science. She has previously been a Nurse Manager for Workforce Development, working with the EDON and Directors of Nursing for the past 15 years. Becky is a member of Nurse Executives of New Zealand, and the College of Nurses Aotearoa.

Tracey has previously held roles at Hawke’s Bay DHB and was Chief Executive of Wairarapa DHB for almost four years. She has also worked in health systems in Australia, the UK and the Middle East.

In Qatar she held various roles over a seven-year period, including the position of National Director of the Integrated Care Program for Hamad Medical Corporation & Primary Healthcare Corporation. 

She’s worked for the NHS England and in Scotland where she has supported the national electives and vaccination programmes.

Tracey’s passion is for developing teams to enable system-wide change to integrate services, systems and processes. She has significant international experience in system transformation and integration.

Tracey is focused on supporting and enabling people to do their very best work to achieve common goals.  

Richard is an Anaesthetist by training and has occupied Clinical Leadership Roles for 10 years. He is a Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists, and completed most of his Anaesthesia training in New Zealand.

The job of the Chief Medical Officer is to work alongside clinical and non-clinical colleagues to ensure that clinical care is safe and of a high quality. This work can range from responding to immediate serious incidents, such as mass casualty events, through to planning for health care in twenty years’ time, by advising on hospital design.

Karalyn is responsible for the Communications team, which interacts with the media and public, and keeps staff informed of what’s going on in the district. The Communications team is responsible for external and internal communications, which includes publications and health campaigns.

Karalyn has been in this role since 2011. Before that she was a senior advisor at the Ministry of Health. She has also worked at Hawke’s Bay District Health Board and the office of the Minister of Health. She is a member of the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand and International Association of Business Communicators.

James has held a number of senior executive positions in several successful and well-known organisations including ASB Bank, Telecom / Spark, and The Warehouse, and for the past six years in the health sector with Health Alliance, Mahitahi Hauora Primary Health Entity and The Order of St John. The majority of James’ senior positions have been in IT across several different industries.

With a proven track record of operational stability, programme delivery, and commercial stewardship, James is most proud of developing an autonomous senior leadership team aligned in vision and values. James believes our people strive for continuous success when leaders help them understand how their role contributes to the delivery of products and services and are engaged with the technology that can enable and accelerate their goals.

James leads the Information Services Group (ISG) for Canterbury and West Coast districts. In his role as Chief Digital Officer James also holds the Executive Portfolio for Innovation.

Born and bred on Auckland’s North Shore, James whakapapas to Northland (Ngapuhi, Karetu).

David Green is currently Acting Chief Financial Officer.

Jacqui joined the Canterbury district leadership team in November 2018. She is a qualified occupational therapist, and was previously Chief Health Professions Officer for the Scottish Government.

Her experience spans the public and private healthcare systems in the UK, and includes clinical leadership positions, founding and running of her own business, and advising the World Health Organisation. In 2015 Jacqui was made a member of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to healthcare and the health care professions.

Rob Ojala leads the facilities redevelopment for Canterbury and West Coast districts. Rob is an Emergency Physician by training and has worked in Canterbury for the past 20 years following completion of his specialist training in Melbourne. He has been clinical lead for facilities redevelopment for Canterbury district for 10 years prior to his current role. During this time he has overseen the delivery of the Burwood Hospital redevelopment and extensive change on the Christchurch Hospital campus with a new Outpatients Building being constructed, and Waipapa the acute services facility. During 2022 his focus is on the redevelopment of the remainder of Christchurch Hospital, redevelopments and new facilities for specialist mental health services on the Hillmorton campus along with a number of other facilities projects.

Rob also continues his clinical practice as an Emergency Physician at Christchurch Hospital’s Emergency Department.

Norma held the position of the Director of Midwifery within a transalpine role for Canterbury and the West Coast DHBs for four years, after moving from her previous 17 year national role with the College of Midwives into the DHB system and the operational space of a large tertiary facility that provides referral services for much of the South Island. At the same time Norma had responsibility for sustaining community units at Lincoln/Selwyn, Rangiora and Ashburton, as well as responsibility for the remote rural maternity systems in the Chathams, Kaikoura and the West Coast and how to sustain care closer to home.

Since 2017, Norma has, with colleagues, driven the development of a Maternity Strategy for both Canterbury and the West Coast. The same pillars have been used for the districts but two very different strategies have emerged following hui in both districts. The solutions can often have the same overlying framework, but locally applied solutions which make sense to the local community are what make the difference within such frameworks.

Within her role, Norma sits on various multi-disciplinary groups that link to community and public health work, as well as Christchurch Campus and Greymouth Campus work.

Norma is a Registered Midwife and has worked in hospital and community settings since 1990, where māmā and their pēpi have always been at the centre of her work.

Pauline is responsible for promoting clinician-lead and management-enabled delivery of safe, effective and efficient healthcare at Christchurch Hospital as well as Lincoln Maternity Unit and the Rangiora Health Hub.

Pauline has a clinical background in Nursing and Midwifery, a Master’s Degree in Public Management, and a postgraduate qualification in Health Economics. Prior to beginning her current role in February 2011, Pauline was General Manager of Christchurch Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

Gloria has over 40 years’ experience in the Health sector as a Registered Medical Laboratory Scientist including in the roles of Charge Scientist, Quality Manager and Laboratory Manager. She has been a Director of Allied Health Scientific and Technical and has also held roles within Pharmacy, Radiology and Support Services. Gloria was a member of the National Directors of Allied Scientific & Technical and a Board Member of Health Workforce New Zealand and continues to be a member of the National Roundtable of Laboratory and Pathology Services.

Gloria’s passion for the Health sector and particularly pathology services leads her to work to assist with initiatives that will improve outcomes for the workforce and the community. As part of this a major focus is working with people to encourage, foster and allow them to reach their full potential. She supports a team approach with a focus on the right person with the right skills providing what is required to the right person at the right location.

Greg is responsible for the provision of specialist mental health services, both at Hillmorton and Princess Margaret Hospitals and in a range of community settings.

Greg worked in Canterbury DHB’s Planning and Funding team for 12 years and prior to this in Community and Public Health since 2004. Prior to this he gained a PhD in Population Health and worked in a range of research/academic roles in Western Australia and New Zealand. Greg started in this role in July 2020.

Rachel joined Canterbury DHB in 2005 and managed the provision of support services through contractors for a number of years before leading the transition projects that created the districts’ WellFood business and Environmental Services. She is also actively involved in developing our support workforce. In 2011 she joined the Transalpine team to manage the West Coast district contracted services. Rachel will continue with her responsibilities of the operational and contract management of services to all sites and providing leadership of the WellFood Service.

Rachel has spent more than 20 years in facilities management in both the education and healthcare sectors in the UK and NZ working with both private and public organisations including the NHS and has had short stints in Switzerland and Japan. She has been involved in significant change projects over the years with some large multi-nationals; including work with Bethlem Royal Hospital & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust in London, and The Royal Ballet School.

Biography coming soon.