Leadership
Mary Los'e is an executive leader whose approach to leadership has been shaped across media, housing, banking, health systems and Māori and Pacific economic development in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Her leadership is grounded in executive responsibility and public service rather than profile, built through senior roles in large institutions and sustained governance participation. As a Pacific-sector leader, she brings a cross-sector perspective to the work of leading people, organisations and systems, with a consistent focus on community impact. This page sets out the experience that defines her leadership, the sectors she has led within, and the way she approaches complex decisions and governance responsibilities.
Leadership Across Sectors
Mary Los'e's leadership has been tested across several distinct sectors. Each has shaped a different aspect of how she leads, and together they form an unusually broad base of executive experience
1. Media & Communications
Mary's leadership foundations were laid in media and communications, across journalism and broadcasting. Working in this environment develops a particular set of leadership skills: clear communication under pressure, judgement about how information reaches the public, and the ability to engage diverse audiences. These early lessons in communications have remained central to how she leads and represents organisations.
2. Housing & Public Service
In housing and public service, Mary led within organisations responsible for significant transformation. Leadership in this setting is defined by stakeholder management across government, communities and delivery partners, and by keeping community outcomes at the centre of large and complex programmes. Her experience here reflects the discipline of leading change at scale while remaining accountable to the people that change is meant to serve.
3. Banking & Innovation
Mary's experience in banking and innovation broadened her leadership into the commercial sector. The leadership themes here centre on business engagement, supporting innovation, and building partnerships that connect commercial capability with community benefit. This experience added a commercial dimension to a leadership style otherwise rooted in public service and community work.
4. Health Systems
Leadership in health systems brought a focus on access, equity and service delivery. Health leadership requires balancing the needs of the system with the needs of the people it serves, and a particular attention to reaching communities that have faced barriers to care. Mary's experience in this sector reflects leadership oriented toward making services more accessible and more equitable.
5. Economic Development
In economic development, Mary's leadership has focused on entrepreneurship, ecosystem development and partnerships. Effective leadership in this space is less about any single organisation and more about strengthening the wider conditions that allow enterprise to grow: supporting entrepreneurs, connecting networks, and building the partnerships across business, government and community that sustain economic participation over time.
Leadership Philosophy
Mary Los'e's leadership philosophy is best understood through the way she works rather than through titles. Four themes run consistently through her approach.
Collaboration
Mary leads by working across sectors and stakeholders. Her career has repeatedly required bringing together government, business and community interests, and she approaches leadership as a collaborative effort rather than a solo exercise. This orientation reflects a practical understanding that durable outcomes are built with others, not imposed on them.
Community-Centred Thinking
A consistent feature of Mary's leadership is the weight she gives to community impact. She approaches decisions by balancing organisational outcomes with the effect on the communities involved, keeping the people a programme or organisation serves at the centre of the thinking. This is a defining characteristic of her work across the public and community sectors.
Systems Leadership
Mary approaches leadership with an understanding of complexity. Having led within housing, health and economic development, she recognises that organisations operate inside larger systems of policy, funding, community need and delivery. Her leadership reflects an ability to see those connections and to lead in a way that accounts for the whole system, not just a single part of it.
Long-Term Perspective
Mary's leadership is oriented toward building sustainable outcomes. Rather than prioritising short-term results, she focuses on the partnerships, capabilities and conditions that allow progress to continue over time. This long-term perspective is consistent with her sustained involvement in governance and ecosystem-level work.
Leading Through Complexity
Much of Mary Los'e's leadership experience has involved navigating complexity. The sectors she has worked in share a common feature: they require leaders to manage multiple stakeholders, think in terms of systems, and adapt as conditions change.
In housing, leadership meant operating within large transformation programmes where government priorities, community needs and delivery constraints had to be balanced at once. The challenge was not a single decision but the continuous coordination of many interests toward a shared outcome.
In health systems, complexity took the form of designing and delivering services that reach diverse communities equitably. Leading in this environment requires attention to access and equity alongside the practical demands of service delivery, and an awareness of the communities most at risk of being left behind.
In economic development, the complexity lies in the ecosystem itself. Strengthening economic participation depends on many actors, entrepreneurs, businesses, funders, government and community organisations, and leadership means building the partnerships and conditions that allow that ecosystem to function rather than directing any single part of it.
Across all of these, governance provides the framework within which complex decisions are made accountable. Mary's experience leading through complexity reflects systems thinking, stakeholder management and a capacity to adapt, applied consistently across very different sectors.
Leadership, Governance & Public Contribution
- Global Women
- Institute of Directors NZ
- Australian Institute of Company Directors
- Tāmaki Makaurau Business Network Governance Group
Public Leadership Conversations
Mary Los'e contributes to visible leadership activity through speaking engagements and participation in public conversations on leadership, governance and economic development. Recent engagements include:
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2026
Women in Leadership Summit
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2025
Women Leading Business Lunch
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2025
Pacific Economic Insights
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2024
Pacific Economic Insights Series
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2023
Front Page Podcast
Leadership Insights
This hub connects to a wider collection of articles and commentary on leadership, governance and economic development. Featured topics include:
Leadership
- Leading Across Sectors
- Leadership in Complex Systems
- Building Partnerships
Governance
- Governance and Leadership
- Boardroom Decision Making
Economic Development
- Leadership and Economic Growth
- Pacific Business Leadership
Current Focus
Mary continues to contribute to leadership, governance, Māori and Pacific economic development, and public-sector conversations across Aotearoa New Zealand.
Frequently Asked Questions
Mary Los'e has executive and senior leadership experience across media and communications, housing and public service, banking, health systems and economic development. Her leadership combines operational responsibility within large organisations with governance participation, giving her a cross-sector record built from real executive experience rather than profile.
Mary has led within media and communications, housing and the public sector, banking, health systems and economic development in Aotearoa New Zealand. This breadth gives her a perspective on leadership that spans the public, commercial and community sectors.
Mary approaches leadership through collaboration, community-centred thinking, systems leadership and a long-term perspective. She works across sectors and stakeholders, keeps community impact at the centre of decisions, understands the complex systems organisations operate within, and focuses on building sustainable outcomes over time.
Mary participates in a number of governance and director bodies, including Global Women, the Institute of Directors NZ, the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and the Tāmaki Makaurau Business Network Governance Group. These roles reflect leadership exercised through stewardship and accountability beyond executive titles.
Mary speaks on leadership across sectors, leadership in complex systems, governance and decision-making, building partnerships, and economic development. Her contributions draw on cross-sector executive experience and a focus on Pacific economic participation and community impact.
Professional Enquiries
Mary Los'e welcomes enquiries relating to speaking, media and leadership engagements. Please use the enquiry form to get in touch. Enquiries are reviewed and responded to directly.
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