On International Women's Day, the New Zealand Herald celebrates some of New Zealand's powerful and influential women in business.
Video / NZ Herald
Women remain thin on the ground at the top of New Zealand’s major corporates but some have managed to break through into the senior ranks. As part of International Women’s Day the Herald celebrates some of New Zealand’s most powerful women in business.
1. ANZ CEO Antonia Watson
Antonia Watsonis in charge of the country’s largest bank. She got the job in an acting capacity in 2019 when its former chief executive left over an expenses scandal.
But since taking over the role permanently, Watson has been a steady hand at the tiller during the turbulent Covid years and last year presided over a record profit at the bank.
Watson grew up in Auckland’s Epsom and trained as an accountant at Otago University. She spent much of her career working for investment bank Morgan Stanley in London, Sydney and Hungary before returning to New Zealand to work for ANZ. She has been with the bank for 14 years.
Auckland Airport chief executive Carrie Hurihanganui runs one of New Zealand’s biggest listed companies with a key role as the country’s main aviation gateway and a multi-billion dollar capital spending programme.
She has been in the job for a year after two decades at Air New Zealand where she rose to chief operating officer.
Carrie Hurihanganui, chief executive of Auckland Airport.
3. Jolie Hodson, chief executive of Spark
Spark chief executive Jolie Hodson, backed by Justine Smyth at the head of the telco’s board, has overseen an increase in profit and revenue during the pandemic.
The past couple of years have also seen the now $9.5 billion market cap company expand its new business lines such as the internet of things, big data and cloud services.
Hodson has also continued to be active with various organisations addressing the technology industry’s gender gap and womens’ ongoing efforts to achieve equality in the business world as a whole, including Coralus (formerly SheEO), supporting women entrepreneurs.
She’s also a member of career mentoring and diversity advocacy group Global Women, and a co-founder of On Being Bold, a collective for professionals that is “passionate about helping women to succeed in business”.
Spark CEO Jolie Hodson. Photo / Dean Purcell
4. Sharon Zollner, chief economist ANZ NZ
As chief economist at New Zealand’s largest bank, Sharon Zollner naturally has a high profile. She has made her mark with bold and sometimes contrary forecasts on issues like inflation, which push back against the mainstream narrative.
Sometimes that means warning that the economic outlook is not as rosy as the powers-that-be would like. Zollner brings a refreshing frankness to her commentary and isn’t afraid to admit that getting it wrong is part of the job.
Despite that, she is a champion of the discipline, telling the Herald in 2021: “When you think of any government policy... and it’s portrayed as being win-win-win, the economist goes ‘hang on! There’s no such thing. Where’s the cost?’ There’s no magic wand we can wave, whether that’s monetary or fiscal policy or anything else. There is always a cost.”
ANZ NZ chief economist Sharon Zollner.
5. Arihia Bennett, CEO Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu
Arihia Bennett has been the chief executive of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu since 2012, overseeing the interests of 78,000 iwi members,
Bennett oversees all of Ngai Tahu’s operations, including farming, seafood, tourism and investment. She’s in charge of $1.9 billion worth of assets, including more than $600 million worth of property.
Arihia Bennett.
6. Anna Mowbray, entrepreneur and co-founder of Zuru Toys
Anna Mowbray co-founded toy manufacturer Zuru with siblings Nick and Mat. She grew up in Cambridge to dairy farming parents.
Her brothers moved to Hong Kong in 2003 to set up Zuru and she joined them in 2005. Alongside her brothers she bought the Dotcom mansion in Coatesville.
Mowbray has since founded Zeil, a recruitment software platform that creates curriculum vitaes, with Carmen Vicelich, another impressive female entrepreneur who founded Data Insight and Valocity Global.
As an active investor, Anna is backing the healthcare startup HealthNow and the listed company TradeWindow.
Co-founder of Zuru Toys, Anna Mowbray.
7. Silvana Schenone, Jarden co-head of investment banking
Silvana Schenone moved to investment bank Jarden last year after spending nearly 15 years at MinterEllisonRuddWatts working on merger and acquisition deals where she had an enviable list of blue-chip clients ranging from The Warehouse to Infratil, as well as the New Zealand Government.
In 2021 and 2022 she was crowned the New Zealand dealmaker of the year at the Australasian Law Awards. Schenone grew up in Chile and moved to New Zealand in 2007, following her Kiwi husband home after a stint working for a top law firm in New York.
Silvana Schenone is co-head of investment banking at Jarden.
8. Dame Therese Walsh, Air New Zealand chair
Dame Therese Walsh is one of the country’s leading directors and chairs ASB Bank and Air New Zealand, which has emerged from near-financial collapse during the pandemic to reporting a strong half-year profit.
She was the head of New Zealand for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, and the chief operating officer for Rugby New Zealand 2011.
Two years later she was named the inaugural supreme winner of the Women of Influence Awards.
Dame Therese Walsh is the chair of Air New Zealand and ASB. Photo / Dean Purcell.
9. Cecilia Robinson, entrepreneur
Cecilia Robinson co-founded meal-kit food delivery business My Food Bag with Theresa Gattung and Nadia Lim in 2012 and resigned as co-CEO in 2018 after the founders sold their controlling stake in My Food Bag to Waterman Capital in 2016. She has recently rejoined the company as a director.
Robinson also co-founded online healthcare company Tend Health in late 2020 with husband James Robinson, Dr Mataroria Lyndon (from TVNZ’s The Check Up) and former PushPay executive Josh Robb,
Tend allows patients to make appointments and have online video consultations with doctors and nurses through the Tend app.
Robinson is also a director of Pie Funds.
Cecilia Robinson, one of My Food Bag's five co-founders.
10. Ranjna Patel, social entrepreneur
Ranjna Patel has developed a successful healthcare business, built a Hindu temple and created a groundbreaking domestic violence programme. In 2016 she was named the Deloitte top 200 Visionary leader.
Patel worked as a receptionist in her husband’s GP practice which began as a single clinic in 1977. She wanted to improve access to healthcare and wasn’t afraid to open up more affordable clinics in South Auckland, even if they were just 2km apart.
That saw the business grow and it is now called Tamaki Health and has 45 clinics in Auckland and New Zealand. On top of that Patel founded Gandhi Nivas, a programme which helps men stop violence against women.
Nearly 60 per cent of men who have been through the Gandhi Nivas programme have been prevented from reoffending.
