Healthcare Game Changer is a NEXT Woman of the Year Finalist

You can say that Josephine Gagan is the lion-heart lady of the healthcare sector. Her courageous and revolutionary contributions to the industry earned her a coveted spot as a finalist in this year’s NEXT Woman of the Year Awards. The awards honour inspirational Kiwi women whose success makes a real difference to New Zealand as a whole. Josephine is a finalist in the Business & Innovation category that pays tribute to bold commercial thinkers with a tireless entrepreneurial spirit and the drive to achieve economic success.

“Jo has reshaped the face of home-based healthcare in New Zealand. Her commitment to investing in her teams and innovative technology has allowed Jo to care for thousands and thousands of Kiwis in ways that weren’t imagined even ten years ago,” says Tony Ryall, former Minister of Health.

Josephine was a third-generation nurse before making the bold move into starting her own healthcare company, Geneva Healthcare, in 1996. She pushed for and implemented the principles of equal pay and gender diversity, enabling Geneva to become the only healthcare provider to receive the 2018 YWCA Best Practice Compact Award.

Now, she heads the country’s largest network of home health services, New Zealand Health Group; and is the Deputy Chairperson of the Home and Community Health Association, as well as Chair of Minds for Minds charitable trust.

With commercial acumen and sheer tenacity, she has driven countless ventures to success including pioneering large-scale use of home-health innovations, an app that supports carers and clients, and an online platform that enables their carers to upskill and gain qualifications for free while getting paid for the work they do.

This year, Josephine was inducted into the New Zealand Hall of Fame for Women Entrepreneurs in recognition of her contribution thus far to revolutionising how New Zealanders receive healthcare.

She puts her success down to choosing the right people for the right roles. Many of Geneva’s senior management team started in junior roles under her mentorship.

“Very few people are able to succeed as much in business yet still have plenty left over to care for others, to be successful in that essential area as well. Jo Gagan is a good person, a very successful person, and one well deserving of any award that recognises a woman who has succeeded so much in the pursuit of excellence, in business and in life,” says Douglas Catley, New Zealand Health Group Ltd Director.

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