Rosalie Nelson

Brought in during a critical period to lead both organisations, facing significant financial pressure, broken relationships and existential risk due to Covid-19 border closures to accepted migrants. In close partnership with a small, committed team, we:

• Rebuilt trust and relationships with mana whenua, government and Fellows, based on a refreshed vision and values. Resulted in Te Ātiawa partnership to welcome migrants; a refreshed contract with Govt and renewed Fellow engagement.
• Built a team culture of trust and collaboration, which ensured a small team delivered outstanding results despite significant change and resource challenges.
• Pivoted our business model, raising close to $2 million through a mix of Govt grants, donations, and Fellow contributions
• Welcomed and integrated over 270 high profile migrants (Fellows) to NZ, delivering an immersive welcome experience and connecting into regions, social and innovation ecosystem.
• Delivered longitudinal impact data: demonstrated for every $1 spent, Fellows generated $111 in direct economic value.
• Successfully managed the integration of the Hillary Institute (parent) and Edmund Hillary Fellowship
• Rewrote our constitution to embed the honouring of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and embedding Treaty training and te ao Maori into our Welcome experiences. Developed our tikanga with Te Ātiawa and Fellow advisory groups
• Piloted a 'Mission Studio' as a model for systemic climate action, founded on a regenerative finance model
• Delivered a revenue-positive Hillary Innovation Summit bringing 120 global innovators together with NZ leaders to collaborate on Aotearoa's future. Rated 8/10 by attendees.

Recruited as part of a new executive team, responsible for shifting Callaghan Innovation (CI), as NZ's innovation agency, from a siloed organisation bound by legacy systems, assets and ways of working into an agile, future focussed organisation. Charged with delivering strategy, building a future insights practice and innovation impact/performance measurement team. Key achievements include:

• Gaining support and trust from disengaged stakeholders, who we partnered with to develop CI's long-term strategy, aligned to policy objectives. The strategy defined the organisation's role in commercialising innovation, and was operationalised through culture, business model and organisational change programmes.
• Developing an 'innovator's journey' map by identifying their needs from idea to success. This allows us to segment, redefine services and partnerships based on robust evidence and redefine our business model.
• Developed purpose, strategy and value proposition for CI's Research and Development services, in collaboration with scientists and technical experts. This won their buy in and support, after years of underinvestment, disengagement and mistrust. Re-integrated two fractured parts of the organisation
• Delivered insights on the Covid-19 business impact, supported by economic and R&D analysis. This was used to inform Government Covid interventions.
• Built and maintained team engagement at 7.3 (out of 10) through periods of significant change, disruption and introduction of new processes and systems.

Supported Chorus' separation from Telecom to a publicly listed, standalone broadband fibre provider. Recruited as an industry expert to develop market strategy and insights.

• Building a high-performing team culture: each team member is a ‘go-to’ market expert responsible to different stakeholders. Won the ‘High Performing Team’ award based on peer vote in 2016. Scored highly (8-10) in the Elkiem high performing team evaluation.
• Developing a market strategy, including social and economic benefits of connectivity, aligned to newly established regulatory requirements. This was foundational to ‘Gigatown’, an award-winning social media initiative which offered one community the fastest broadband in the Southern Hemisphere.
• Developing data and analytics capability within Chorus. This included a fibre-broadband demand model that 90%+ forecast accuracy, supporting regulatory engagement and decision making.
• Winning the support of a highly resistant industry to share insights and key metrics in order to build an comparative industry benchmark