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TE PUNI KÖKIRI CHIEF EXECUTIVE
For the next three years she was in and
around treaty settlement work with the Office
of Treaty Settlements, and then she joined Te
Papa where she has spent the last four years.
Michelle’s role at Te Papa Tongarewa has
been at the very top of the management tree.
She was acting-CEO for more than a year,
following the tragic death of the previous
CEO – Dr Sneddon Bennington – in a snow
storm on a tramping trip in the Tararuas in
July 2009; and while the recruitment and
arrival of the new CEO took place.
As Kaihautü her
tasks have ranged
from raising private
capital to support
the museum’s work,
negotiating and
carrying out the
repatriation of Mäori
moko mokai and
other remains from
overseas, organising
exhibitions here
and abroad and
developing policies
for the museum.
So the CEO’s job at Te Puni Kökiri was not
really on her radar, until a number of people
came to talk to her about it and suggested
she should apply.
For Michelle it’ll be a coming home after her
two years in the ministry from 1996 to 1998.
She’s looking forward to her return. She’s
looking forward to nurturing new Mäori talent
and working with other CEOs in the public
service to advance the work of Te Puni Kökiri.
Michelle is married with two children. She
will go down in history as the first woman to
head Te Puni Kökiri and is one of the youngest,
if not the youngest to hold the top job in the
government’s principal Mäori agency.
They say you should never ask a woman
her age. But her CV says she was born in
January 1968.
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