28 March 2019
New Chief Executive to lead local DHBs
Fionnagh Dougan has been appointed as the new joint Chief Executive (CE) for Capital & Coast and Hutt Valley District Health Boards (DHBs). She will start in the role on 1 July 2019.
Fionnagh will return to New Zealand to take up the role. She is currently the Chief Executive of the Children’s Health
Queensland Hospital and Health Service, and an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of
Queensland.
Before moving to Australia, Fionnagh held a number of leadership roles with Auckland DHB. She has a clinical background
working as a registered nurse and a mental health nurse in the UK, and has roles with a number of health bodies –
including roles as President of Children’s Hospitals Australasia, and member of the Health Round Table.
Andrew Blair, Board Chair for the two DHBs, said it has been a rigorous and robust recruitment process and the
appointment was a unanimous decision by both DHB Boards.
“We believe Fionnagh’s expertise and experience will be instrumental in achieving our shared vision of having a unified
health service across the region,” said Andrew.
“We have a shared community with many people working in one region and living in another. There are a lot of
opportunities to give people better and fairer access to the same excellent healthcare services across the region.
Fionnagh will support the DHBs to do this.”
This is the first time the two DHBs have had a joint chief executive. The DHBs will remain separate organisations with
separate Boards.