Te Wānanga o Aotearoa Chief Executive Officer Dr Jim Mather has praised the appointment of Tony Dowling to lead Te Rūnanga-Ā-Iwi-O-Ngāpuhi.

Tony, who has served as the Director Innovation and Development at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa for the past three years was today announced as Te Rūnanga-A-Iwi-O-Ngāpuhi chief executive and will take up the position on November 2.

"Tony has created and developed our Innovation Development Group which has not only managed to bring in alternative incomes streams into Te Wānanga o Aotearoa but also established partnerships and programmes that are aligned with our vision of whānau transformation through education,” says Dr Mather.

"Tony and this team have been instrumental in the delivery of a suite of programmes including a national Corrections contract that focuses on increasing inmates literacy and numeracy which integrates a Maori teaching style and graduates have gone on to further study. Tony will be sorely missed but we congratulate him on his new leadership role with his iwi."

Te Rūnanga-Ā-Iwi-O-Ngāpuhi Acting Chair Carol Dodd said the Rūnanga would benefit from Tony’s extensive experience at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and prior roles with Honeywell and Siemens A &D as General Manager and NZ Regional Manager respectively.
“We will benefit from his commercial-world expertise and more recently his te ao Māori experience at the wānanga.” she said.

Tony Dowling (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Tautahi) says his time at TWoA leading a team totally committed to helping secure, implement and operationalise new ventures and transformative educational programmes which truly changes the lives of individuals and their whānau, has been incredibly fulfilling, both professionally and personally.