BOLD STEPS 2025 SPEAKERS (alphabetical order)
Sinead Boucher
Stuff Group's Owner and Publisher, former journalist Sinead Boucher, bought the business from its Australian owners in 2020 and has since transformed the organisation from the bottom up, restructuring, replatforming and reshaping its large group of media brands. These include New Zealand's largest digital news website stuff.co.nz; daily and weekly digital and print brands including The Post, The Press, the Waikato Times and the Sunday Star-Times; premium magazines such as NZ House & Garden and NZ Gardener; the burgeoning Stuff Events business which owns Round the Bays and Central District Fieldays; and social media network Neighbourly. Stuff's Follow No One ethos is led by Sinead, a visionary and fearless leader who is deeply committed to journalism and having a positive impact on the lives of New Zealanders. She is on the board of the International News Media Association and chair of the New Zealand Publishers Association.
Jason Boyes
Jason Boyes is Chief Executive and a non-independent director of Infratil, having joined the board in April 2021. Jason leads and oversees the development and implementation of Infratil’s strategy, and the management of Infratil’s investments.
Jason is a Partner at Morrison which he joined in 2011 following a 15-year legal career in corporate finance, and mergers and acquisitions in New Zealand and London. His past roles at Morrison include Head of Legal, Chief Commercial Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and Head of Europe. Jason is a director of Longroad Energy and CDC.
Dr Catherine Meerkerk
Dr Catherine Meerkerk, née 양우진, is a specialist medical doctor, board director, and former McKinsey consultant based in Waikato. She is a Harvard graduate, Fulbright Scholar, and only one of two New Zealanders to have ever been selected as an International Young Leader by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC) in Geneva, Switzerland. In 2023, she was appointed as a Medical Officer of Health by the Director General of New Zealand.
Dame Ranjna Patel
Dame Ranjna Patel has an extensive involvement in charitable and community groups for which she received a QSM in 2009 and ONZM in 2017 and DNZM in 2025. She was appointed in 1996 Justice of Peace. She was the Co-Founder and Director of Tamaki Health, largest private Primary and Emergency care provider with a patient base of 330,000 and a footprint of 4000 patients a day. She founded Gandhi Nivas, a Family Harm initiative. The program has a social return on investment for every $ a $12.80 return, and 60% non recidivism.
Ranjna is also the first women to be a Trustee of International Swaminarayan Satsang – Established in 2008, the organisation runs weekly Children Education Classes, Elders group, Womens Group and caters for 700-800 people for a free meal on Sunday evenings.
Dep Chair of Diversity Works, Mental Health Foundation, Exec Trustee of Total Healthcare, Trustee of Swaminarayan Temple, Chair of Serenity Foundation (Gandhi Nivas), Commissioners Ethnic Focus Forum, Chair of Indian Ink, NZ Global Women Ltd. Past Director of Bank of Baroda (NZ), NACEW. Patron of NZ Police Recruit Wing 330.
First Indian to be inducted into NZ Business Hall of Fame, Trade Me - Innovation of the Year, Women of Influence – Community Hero, NEXT Women of the Year in Business and Innovation, Deloittes Visionary Leader, EY Entrepreneur Master Category, 125 yrs. Women Suffrage – 125 NZ Trailblazer, EEO Diversity Award – Walk the Talk, EEO Positive Inclusion, EY Entrepreneur of the Year - Master Category, Suffrage 130 – 30 NZ women we admire, inducted into the Hall of Fame for Women Entrepreneur
Anapela Polata’ivao, ONZM
Anapela’s ancestral roots stems from Vailoa Faleata and Vaiusu in Upolu and also Fagae’e in Savai’i. Since graduating from Toi Whakaari in 2000, her and partner Vela Manusaute created the South Auckland theatre collective Kila Kokonut Krew which garnered them a New Generation Arts Laureate after producing the landmark Pasefika musical The Factory – A Pacific Musical. She gained international acclaim for her performance in the short film Night Shift (2012) and won Best Actress in the 2018 Wellington Theatre Awards for her role in Tusiata Avia’s Wild Dogs Under My Skirt, which she also directed. Polata’ivao made history last year as the first Samoan woman to have directed a show off-Broadway when Wild Dogs Under My Skirt made its New York debut and was subsequently named the winner of the Fringe Encore Series at the SoHo Playhouse. In 2019, she staged her first original Samoan opera with opera superstars, Sol3 Mio in South Auckland. In 2023, Polata’ivao played the leading role in the feature film Tinā which was both a critical success and continues to break box office records throughout New Zealand. She has featured in a number of film and TV roles including The Rule of Jenny Penn playing alongside Geoffrey Rush and John Lithgow and in the HBO TV show Our Flag Means Death, starring Taika Waititi.
Sarah Robb O'Hagan
Sarah Robb O’Hagan is a high-energy combination of disruptive business leader, fitness fanatic, and cheerleading mom. She's been named among Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business” and Forbes "Most Powerful Women in Sports". She was most recently the CEO of EXOS the Human Performance company where she transformed the business during the global pandemic – and pioneered with her team a new approach to workplace culture that drives productivity and performance while avoiding burnout and employee disengagement. Prior to this she led the reinvention and turnaround of the $5Bn Gatorade business as its global president, before leading the digital transformation of Equinox Fitness Clubs as president. Sarah has also held leadership positions at Nike and Virgin and currently sits on the board of Jet Blue, and formerly Strava. In 2017, her first book was published by Harper Collins - ExtremeYou - Step Up. Stand Out. Kick Ass. Repeat. Sarah is a sought-after expert on business innovation, and inspiring human performance and is a passionate advocate for getting young women into sports and physical activity to increase their leadership potential. Sarah is a trustee emeritus of Billie Jean King’s Women's Sports Foundation, A Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute, and as a proud "Ameri-Kiwi" is an active member of the KEA World Class New Zealand Network.
Cecilia Robinson
Cecilia Robinson, Founder and Co-CEO of Tend. Tend is a full service primary healthcare provider launched in late 2020, revolutionising primary healthcare through integrating worldclass technology into healthcare. Cecilia began her entrepreneurial journey at 21 with Au Pair Link. Cecilia co-founded My Food Bag alongside her husband James. After selling My Food Bag in 2016, the Robinsons decided to tackle one of New Zealand’s biggest problems, primary healthcare. Beyond business, Cecilia is a dedicated mother to their three children and supports numerous NZ charities, including The Kings Trust New Zealand, the Middlemore foundation and surf life saving. Cecilia has won several awards, most recently being named the 2024 Innovator of the Year in the New Zealander of the Year Awards.