Professor Lester Levy

Chair, Health New Zealand
CNZM, MBBCh, MBA, FRACMA, FNZIM

Lester is the Chair of Health New Zealand, Professor of Digital Health Leadership at the Auckland University of Technology, Chair of the New Zealand Health Research Council and an independent advisor on leadership and leadership development. He is a medical doctor and MBA with a postgraduate professional qualification in medical leadership and is registered as a medical specialist with the Medical Council of New Zealand.

Lester has recently completed a term as Commissioner of Health New Zealand which is New Zealand’s largest entity across the public and private domains. Replacing an existing Board with a Commissioner is the strongest intervention the Government can take when they are concerned about underperformance and risk.

He has served on thirty-one Boards of Directors, eighteen as Chair and three as deputy-Chair. These boards are mainly in public and private healthcare but also in transport, engineering, shared services, biotechnology, film and television production, software development, platform technology, research, logistics and supply chain. Over the past seventeen years he has held nine Ministerial appointments and has previously been a seconded advisor to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet; a member of the Ministerial Advisory Group on Health; a lead reviewer for the State Services Commission’s Performance Improvement Framework and an independent expert advisor to the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Enterprise and a Crown Monitor. Lester has also been a healthcare chief executive three times, twice in the public sector and once in the private sector.

Lester’s research has been published in a range of international peer reviewed academic journals and book chapters, and he is the author of the book Leadership and the Whirlpool Effect (Penguin).

In the 2013 New Zealand New Year's Honours Lester was appointed as a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) for services to health and education.

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