Shea sets a first for M¯aori health
Promises fresh perspective as health board chair
Sharon Shea is proud and honoured to be named as the first permanent Ma¯ori chair of the Bay of Plenty District Health Board, calling it an important signpost for the community.
Health Minister Andrew Little confirmed Shea’s appointment this week, along with those of deputy chairman Geoff Esterman and new board member Wayne Williams.
The appointments run December 5, 2022.
“It’s a privilege to be appointed the permanent chair and I am totally committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of everyone in the Bay is improved,” Shea said.
“I feel honoured to bring a tangata whenua perspective to the board’s leadership and to support the whole community. I believe that being the first Ma¯ori chair is an important signpost for our community in terms of working in partnership to benefit the greater good.
“As a child born at Tauranga Hospital, and then as a young woman at Tauranga Girls’, I could not have foreseen this leadership opportunity and am very grateful for the opportunity to give back to our community and contribute to building a better Aotearoa.”
Shea has strong wha¯nau and whakapapa connections to the Bay of Plenty. She is originally from Te Puna – her iwi are Nga¯ti Ranginui and Nga¯i Te Rangi and her hapu¯ is Pirirakau – and her family is the Borrell and until
Tangitu family, well known in the Tauranga area.
Growing up in Mount Maunganui, she attended Omanu Primary School, Mount Intermediate and Tauranga Girls’ College, before leaving for Auckland University.
She gained a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Legislative Law from Auckland and then studied Comparative Social Policy at Oxford University, topping her class in achieving a first-class honours degree.
Shea is an experienced governor and has been acting chairwoman of the DHB since March 2020.
She has worked in the health sector for nearly 25 years and has held senior management roles across the health system. She owns and runs several companies, as well as sitting on a number of boards.
Shea said the Covid-19 response, achieving health equity, and good financial stewardship, were high on the board’s agenda.
“In particular, our board is dedicated to keeping people in the Bay safe from Covid-19 and improving health equity for those in our community, that need support the most.
“We are a board that are serious about being responsible financial stewards of the health system and we are working hard to ensure investment into frontline services is prioritised.”
BOP Ma¯ori Health Ru¯nanga chairwoman Linda Steel congratulated Shea on her appointment.
“Sharon’s leadership is exemplary of the many skill sets she brings to the table and as a highly skilled wahine Ma¯ori as the figurehead for both the BOPDHB Board and its Te Tiriti o Waitangi partner, Te Ru¯nanga, we are extremely proud of the minister’s appointment.”
Esterman is a GP and owner of the Gate Pa Medical Centre, a practice in a low to mid-decile area of Tauranga. In his role he has enabled accessible quality wha¯nau-based healthcare for up to four generations of patients over the past 29 years.
He is on his third term as an elected member of the health board and said he was “honoured by and enthusiastic about the opportunity” represented by being named deputy chairman.
“I believe having a clinician as deputy chair, and someone who understands well how community services and particularly general practice operates, will increase the opportunity for the BOPDHB to increase its emphasis on working more ‘upstream’,” he said.
“This will help continue the work on breaking down some of the silos that occur in the system. I think it is also important from a quality-of-care perspective. I would also like to thank Ron [Scott] for the work he has completed previously in this role and in particular for the education in governance he has given me.”
Shea also extended a welcome to new board member Wayne Williams, who she said “brings significant financial experience” with him to the table.
Williams has substantial leadership and financial management experience from the professional, corporate and government sectors, including relationships with boards, finance audit risk committees and chief executives.
He is a director of the Moko Foundation, an organisation that supports and empowers communities with a focus on vulnerable children and young people.
"I feel honoured to bring a tangata whenua perspective to the board’s leadership and to support the whole community." Sharon Shea