Norah, who in six years turned the continuum of care operator into one of New Zealand's leading operators, has agreed to became Chair of the Heritage Lifecare Board in her retirement.
"This transition has been carefully planned in collaboration with our shareholders at Adamantem, ensuring that Heritage will continue to thrive under new leadership. I am thrilled to introduce Brent Pattison as the incoming CEO. Brent brings a wealth of experience and shares our passion for placing residents at the heart of everything we do," Norah said.
Brent had been the CEO of the upmarket retirement living operator Oceania Healthcare for the past three-and-a-half years. The transitional CEO of Levande, Suzanne Dvorak, has been apppointed as his replacement.
Norah's career in the ageing sector began when her accounting business was hired by Wellington, New Zealand-based Summerset Group in 1994, before leaving her practice in 1999 to join Summerset full time as the Group Accountant and then becoming CEO in 2001.
She grew the business from a small network of villages to 17 nationwide, leading the company through the initial public offering process on the New Zealand stock exchange. When the company was listed, she became one of only two female chief executives of NZX companies, and at some stages in this time, she was the only female CEO. During her time at Summerset, she also held the position of President of the Retirement Village Association for seven years and chaired the committee that developed the 2008 Code of Practice for retirement villages in New Zealand.
Since leaving Summerset as CEO in 2014, Norah remained on the board for 18 months, and became a board member in another three companies, including Estia Health in Australia. In 2016, Estia’s CEO resigned and she was asked to take over the role. Norah left Estia in July 2018 and accepted the CEO role at Heritage Lifecare two months later.
"Estia’s focus was on aged care, and I relished being back within a great management team, who were determined to make a difference in the lives of older people. I stayed with Estia for two years, before returning to NZ, to lead Heritage Lifecare, also an aged care company. I remain on the board at Estia, allowing me to see the impacts of aged care on the health and wellbeing of people on both sides of the Tasman. This also allows some cross pollination of ideas, which certainly assists Heritage, and I hope, Estia also," said Norah, who also served on the National Advisory Council on the Employment of Women for the Ministry of Women's Affairs.
"The “boys become lawyers, girls become clerks", attitude has never washed with me. Having people who support you and allow you to shine is so important and I’ve always made myself available to women on an individual basis. My advice is always the same, be true to you," she said.
LDK Seniors' Living CEO Byron Cannon on his view of the new Aged Care Act
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