Deputy Chief Executive
Primary Healthcare Ltd
CANDIDATE INFORMATION PACK
Scroll down to access everything you need.
Executive Summary
- Lead a growing healthcare business where commercial success drives community impact.
- Shape strategy, accelerate growth and strengthen the future of primary healthcare.
- A high-impact executive leadership opportunity combining autonomy, ambition and purpose.
THE OPPORTUNITY
An opportunity to combine commercial ambition with genuine community impact, leading a growing healthcare business where financial success directly supports better health outcomes.
Primary Healthcare Ltd (PHCL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Pinnacle Incorporated, is seeking an accomplished and commercially driven Deputy Chief Executive to lead its network of general practices and shape the next phase of its growth and development.
Operating across Waikato, Taranaki and Bay of Plenty, PHCL is a profit-for-purpose organisation with a clear ambition: to build a strong, sustainable and growing healthcare business that generates financial returns to reinvest in the health and wellbeing of its communities.
With nine general practices and more than 185 employees, PHCL has an established platform for growth. Its commercial success supports the Pinnacle Foundation, enabling investment in innovation, workforce development, health equity and the long-term sustainability of primary care.
This is an opportunity for a leader who sees commercial performance and community purpose as mutually reinforcing, and who is energised by the prospect of building a successful business that makes a meaningful difference.
THE ROLE
Reporting to and working closely with the Chief Executive, the Deputy Chief Executive will provide strategic and operational leadership across PHCL, with accountability for business performance, profitability, service quality and sustainable growth.
A central priority will be strengthening PHCL's commercial performance, driving revenue growth, improving operating margins and identifying opportunities for expansion, including practice acquisitions and innovative models of care and service delivery.
The Deputy Chief Executive will play a pivotal role in shaping and executing the organisation's strategic direction, ensuring its practices operate as a cohesive, high-performing network while maintaining strong clinical standards, excellent patient experiences and a commitment to equitable health outcomes.
Equally important will be the ability to inspire and develop people, build strong relationships across clinical and operational environments, and create a culture of accountability, innovation and continuous improvement.
This is a highly influential leadership position offering considerable autonomy, the opportunity to shape a growing business and the scope to contribute to broader organisational strategy and direction.
THE CANDIDATE
We are seeking a commercially astute, values-driven executive who combines strong business leadership with a genuine passion for improving health outcomes through a successful profit-for-purpose organisation.
The successful candidate will bring:
- Commercial acumen and a growth mindset, with a demonstrated ability to improve profitability, strengthen business performance and identify opportunities for sustainable expansion.
- Strategic and operational leadership experience, ideally gained within healthcare or a complex, multi-site service environment, with the ability to translate ambition into measurable results.
- Entrepreneurial thinking and initiative, bringing the energy, curiosity and drive to challenge established approaches, identify opportunities and deliver innovative solutions.
- Positive and engaging leadership, with the ability to motivate, empower and develop high-performing teams while fostering a collaborative and accountable culture.
- Strong relationship management and influencing skills, building credibility and trust with clinical professionals, colleagues, stakeholders and community partners.
- Personal drive, sound judgement and independence, demonstrating the confidence to operate autonomously, make decisions and deliver outcomes in a complex and evolving environment.
- Commitment to purpose and health equity, recognising that strong commercial returns create opportunities to improve access, quality and sustainability of primary healthcare for communities.
Above all, PHCL is seeking a leader who is motivated by both commercial success and the difference that success can make. Someone with the ambition, capability and personal drive to help shape the future of the business while contributing to a stronger and more sustainable primary healthcare system.
For a confidential discussion, please get in touch with:
David Price
HG National Manager, New Zealand
M. +64 (0)210 2392211
E. dprice@hardygroupintl.com
Pinnacle Primary Healthcare Ltd
Kia hauora te katoa, Kia puaawai te katoa. | Everyone healthy, Everyone thriving.
Pinnacle is a group of primary care organisations working across Te Manawa Taki to support general practice, improve access to care, and help people and whānau get the services they need to thrive.
We work alongside general practices, providers, iwi, community organisations and health partners to strengthen primary and community care. Our role includes supporting the delivery of care, improving equity, building capability across the network, and helping shape a more connected and sustainable health system.
Pinnacle exists to support stronger primary care and healthier communities. We work in and alongside general practice because we know primary care matters – for prevention, for early support, for ongoing care, and for the health and wellbeing of whole communities.
Our work has evolved over time, but our focus remains clear: helping ensure people can access quality care close to home, and that providers have the support they need to keep delivering that care well.
We work across a wide and diverse part of Aotearoa, and we know local context matters. The communities we serve are not all the same, and neither are the providers and partners we work alongside. That is why our approach needs to be practical, responsive and grounded in real relationships.
Takohanga | Our responsibility
Ehara i te mea, he kotahi tangata nāna i whakaara te pō. | It is not for one person but for everyone to take responsibility.
We are committed to improving equity of health and wellbeing, in accordance with Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and to working in ways that respond meaningfully to the needs of Māori, Pasifika and other communities who experience barriers to care.
The experience of individuals and whānau matters. People do not all have the same level of access, support or opportunity to be well, and a strong health system needs to recognise that. We believe different approaches are needed to achieve equitable outcomes.
We also recognise the important role of general practice and community-based care in supporting people to live well. That means advocating for primary care, supporting new ways of working, and partnering with others where that will help strengthen care and improve outcomes.
Role Specification
The Deputy Chief Executive provides strategic leadership and direction to our 9 general practices and is responsible for co-designing with the Pinnacle CEO the strategic vision of Primary Healthcare Ltd (PHCL). This includes oversight of the clinical performance of the practices (with a focus on equity) in clinical governance partnership with the Pinnacle Clinical Director. The role will be expert in running a complex clinical service, balanced with a relentless commercial focus - delivering on revenue and profitability objectives that are the foundation of our profit-for-purpose model.
This is a role for a leader who understands that strong returns are not an end in themselves, but the means by which PHCL funds the Pinnacle Foundation and sustains general practice across the network.
The Deputy Chief Executive is expected to bring a laser focus on returns, operating margin, and profitability, while simultaneously championing new and better approaches to creating sustainable general practice. Doing both at once – commercial rigor and bold innovation – is the defining challenge of this role.
Success in this role means delivering sustainable financial performance alongside an engaged and capable workforce, high-quality clinical services, equitable health outcomes and excellent patient experience. These outcomes are mutually reinforcing – strong people and services support strong financial performance, and financial sustainability enables ongoing investment in the workforce, practices and communities.
The Deputy Chief Executive collaboratesinternally to identify, harness, and orchestrate resources required to achieve operational and financial objectives and exceed staff and patient expectations. Coaching, supporting, and developing direct reports to deliver operational and commercial outcomes which ensure sustainable solutions for the day-to-day ownership and management of general practices within PHCL is also a key focus.
Your key focus
- Deliver a laser focus on returns and profitability – drive revenue growth, maximise operating margins, and consistently meet or exceed P&L financial result targets recognising that these surpluses fund the Pinnacle Foundation and the broader Pinnacle network.
- Treat financial performance as a core expression of our profit-for-purpose model – clearly connecting commercial outcomes to the health, equity, and sustainability outcomes they enable across the network.
- Champion new and innovating approaches to creating sustainable general practice, testing and scaling new models of care, funding, and operations that improve both financial viability and patient outcomes.
- Recruit, retain and develop a high performing team of skilled professionals that are highly regarded, accountable for results and have capability to deliver on strategic, operational and commercial objectives.
- Provide development opportunities for team; fosters cooperation and sharing of best practice and lead the transformation of general practices towards our target operating model.
- Lead by example by fostering a culture of strong staff engagement, safety and wellbeing.
- Lead the workforce in developing cultural responsiveness, with a focus on closing the equity gap for Māori and Pasifika.
- Work collaboratively with clinical experts and other key stakeholders to create sustainable clusters of services, identify, and improve on efficiencies and ensure the provision of future-focused innovative health solutions.
- Embed environmentally sustainable practices that reduce waste, emissions and resource use while improving service efficiency, quality and financial sustainability.
- Manage expense budgets in accordance with forecasts and continuously improve the financial sustainability of each practice and the group as a whole.
- Ensure adequate resources and a framework to deliver on quality standards and risk or compliance requirements, monitor achievement of these standards, and provide direction and oversight to ensure continuous improvement.
- Lead the workforce delivering on patient focused activities that will ultimately lead to sustained patient satisfaction and better health outcomes within primary health care, including working with key stakeholders to understand feedback and align service activities and strategies to provide unmatched patient experience.
Your key skills and experience
Education / training
- Bachelor’s degree in a business/health-related discipline or equivalent training essential.
- Additional qualifications, particularly in strategic leadership, change management, and/or finance would be advantageous.
- Current full clean drivers’ licence.
Experience
- Significant experience in a senior management position, preferably within the health sector.
- Demonstrable track record of delivering strong financial returns and profitability growth in a complex, multi-site service environment.
- Solid experience in the management and leadership of diverse and dispersed high performing teams.
- Health-related business development and P&L management experience, with a record of improving operating margins.
- Experience introducing and scaling innovative operating or care models that improved sustainability and performance.
- Prior experience in developing a framework to achieve quality and compliance standards and demonstrable experience in achieving and maintaining compliance.
- Change management experience.
Knowledge / skills
- In depth healthcare sector knowledge.
- Detailed knowledge of quality and compliance requirements within the general practice environment.
- Robust emotional intelligence, strong active listener, visionary leader.
- Highly self-motivated and relentlessly results and returns driven.
- Exceptional commercial acumen, including ROI and NPV analysis, margin management, and the ability to connect financial performance to a profitfor-purpose mission.
- Understands and takes account of financial implications of business decisions, and balances short-term returns with long-term sustainability of general practice.
- Entrepreneurial mindset — comfortable testing new approaches and models to make general practice more sustainable.
- Advanced time management, organisation, and planning skills.
- Diplomatic negotiator.
- Demonstrated ability to build safe, inclusive and accountable workplace cultures.
- Strong understanding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations and their practical application in health service leadership.
- Ability to lead through complexity, ambiguity and competing priorities.
- Strong governance, risk-management and executive reporting capability.
- Ability to influence and build trusted relationships across clinical, operational and community settings.
- Sound understanding of workforce planning, succession and leadership development.
- Ability to use performance data to make decisions and monitor financial, workforce, clinical, equity and environmental outcomes.
- Commitment to ethical leadership and sound judgement, particularly when balancing commercial, workforce and patient considerations.
- Understanding of environmental sustainability and its application in healthcare operations.
- Use Outlook for professional email management, scheduling, and calendar coordination
- Open to, and capable of using modern digital tools and technologies, including AI-enabled solutions, to improve efficiency, accuracy, and quality of work, while maintaining appropriate controls and judgement.
For a more detailed description of key responsibilities, please see the position description.
1. Strategic Leadership and Business Growth
Demonstrated ability to develop and execute strategy, identify growth opportunities and deliver sustainable business outcomes.
2. Commercial Acumen and Financial Performance
Proven experience managing P&L performance, driving revenue growth, improving profitability and delivering strong commercial returns.
3. Operational Leadership and Service Excellence
Significant experience leading complex, multi-site service operations, ensuring operational efficiency, quality, compliance and excellent service delivery.
4. Innovation and Change Leadership
Demonstrated ability to lead transformation, introduce innovative operating models and drive continuous improvement and business sustainability.
5. People Leadership and Culture
An engaging and positive leadership style, with the ability to motivate, empower and develop high-performing teams and foster an accountable, inclusive culture.
6. Stakeholder Engagement and Relationships
Strong interpersonal and influencing skills, with the ability to build trusted relationships across clinical, operational, governance and community environments.
7. Purpose-Driven and Autonomous Leadership
A self-motivated, values-driven leader with sound judgement, a commitment to health equity and Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and the ability to operate independently while balancing commercial success with community outcomes.
Reports to: Chief Executive
$220,000 - $240,000
Car and health insurance included.
Service Location: Waikato region
Hybrid working, two days in Hamilton a week, expected travel to practices throughout region.
The closing date for applications is Thursday 12 November 2026
The reference number to include in your application is H26_5594
Note: Please use the online platform to submit your application. It will not be accepted via email.
If you require assistance in submitting your application online, please get in touch with Executive Search Coordinator, Aldie Zuñiga: M: +61 (0)49 410 1082 / E: azuniga@hardygroupintl.com
Your application must include:
- Cover letter addressed to the Principal Consultant, David Price;
- A written response addressing the key selection criteria; and
- An up to date copy of your Curriculum Vitae.
It Is standard practice for HardyGroup to acknowledge receipt of your application no later than the next business day. We request that if you do not receive the acknowledgement, you contact the search coordinator listed above as soon as possible after the 24-hour business period and arrange to resend your application if necessary.
For a confidential discussion, please contact:
David Price
National Manager, HardyGroup New Zealand
M. +64 (0)21 0239 2211
E. dprice@hardygroupintl.com
Living and working
in Hamilton, Waikato
Waikato, New Zealand, offers a blend of rural and urban lifestyles with key economic drivers in agriculture, dairy, and manufacturing. The region is known for its fertile land and is a hub for agricultural research and innovation, with opportunities in related sectors. It also has a major urban center in Hamilton, which provides various services, a university, and diverse job prospects.
Waikato
The Waikato region is located on New Zealand’s North Island, stretching from the Coromandel through Lake Taupo in the centre, heading on down to King Country in the Island’s southern half. Just under half a million people live in the area, with Hamilton the main centre – a city of innovation and technology, giving it the nickname ‘Hamiltron’.
Hamilton
Discover the vibrant city of Hamilton and its thriving workforce. Experience top-notch dining, a buzzing nightlife and an active outdoor lifestyle. Find where to live and work in Hamilton and enjoy the perfect work-life balance. With a range of job opportunities to choose from, there is something for everyone.
Hamilton Population and Demographics
Situated on the banks of the Waikato River, Hamilton is New Zealand’s largest inland city. It’s currently one of the fastest growing urban areas in the country. The population of Hamilton is youthful and innovative – around half of its residents are under the age of 30. It’s also a very culturally diverse city, home to more than 80 ethnic groups.
Hamilton Weather and Climate
Hamilton’s climate is generally mild, warm and temperate. The average temperature in summer is 21C and 14C in winter. On average, the warmest month is February and the coolest month is July. There is a significant amount annual rainfall in Hamilton, which helps keep the city green.
Hamilton Entertainment & Things to Do
There is a wide array of things to do in Hamilton and the Waikato region. The city centre is packed with restaurants, cafes, bars and casinos where you can have a fun night out. The vibrant nightlife scene is a draw for many travellers and migrants – and on the weekends, you’ll find various markets selling gourmet food and locally-crafted artwork and goods. The city also hosts events like sports matches, concerts, festivals and comedy shows that attract hundreds of locals and visitors every year.
Hamilton is also well known for its stunning parks and gardens. The Hamilton Gardens is the most popular attraction in the Waikato region. This award-winning attraction is well-loved by tourists and locals alike. The Garden takes you on a journey through a gallery of local and international species, with beautifully-manicured examples of traditional gardens from Japan, Italy, China, and much more that each tell their own unique story. Other fun places to spend time include the Hamilton Zoo, the Waikato Museum and Water World.
Hamilton also has close proximity to other regional destinations. Tourist hotspots like Auckland and Rotorua are within a couple hours’ drive from the city – so on your weekend breaks, you can venture out of Hamilton and explore more of the central North Island.
For more information on Living in Hamilton visit.
ABOUT US
HardyGroup’s (HG) mission is simple
Find and Grow Great Leaders - and we have been doing exactly that for more than 30 years in public and private health, primary, community and aged care as well as the broader public service.
Our synergistic business model of Executive Search and Recruitment integrated with Executive Leadership and Learning is our unique point of difference.
It ensures our clients can count on us for the lifecycle of their organisations leadership journey and why we are regarded as the leading trans-Tasman partner agency by clients.
When engaging HG you can be confident in a deeply personalised experience and service as nothing matters more to us than relationships and results.