What ELS?

Huda Jaffer is a strong advocate for putting true inclusion and equity at the core of a just economic transition. In her Director role at SELCO Foundation in Bangalore, India, this translates into a strong focus on user-centric design as she and her team work with some of the poorest communities to create affordable, scalable, and replicable solutions to alleviating poverty and adapting to climate...

Kaj Lofgren founded Regen Melbourne at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the wake of the Black Summer fires. Five years on, what started as a community-research project has turned into an innovative engine for collaboration in service of the regeneration of place. In this episode, Kaj explains how they embraced the Doughnut Economics model to develop a shared vision and a roadmap for coll...

Her early career as an elite athlete has shaped Rebecca Rolls’s approach to leadership ever since. Rolls, the inaugural CEO of the Sport Integrity Commission - Te Kahu Raunui, reflects on the importance of knowing your own limitations, surrounding yourself with people who know more than you, and remaining committed to learning new things.  This episode offers the highly personal story of a leader...

Guy Ryan recently made the big decision to step away from the organisation that he founded and poured his heart and soul into for so many years (Inspiring Stories) to become the new CEO of the Wellington Hospitals Foundation. This episode offers the honest and humble story of a leader who invented himself as a successful social entrepreneur at the age of 24, and has had the recent experience of re...

Bruce ‘Pic’ Picot is well-known for making some bold decisions at Pic’s Peanut Butter, which he started almost a decade ago, for championing radical changes, and for using provocation to trigger positive outcomes. He strongly believes that business leaders should be using the means at their disposal to inspire others, to pass on the gift that others previously passed onto them, and to care for the...

When John Berry co-founded Pathfinder, a successful ethical KiwiSaver and ethical investment fund, back in 2009, the industry was not quite ready. It was really hard to get private investors’ interest and traction in this new way of thinking. But Berry persisted with his vision, and Pathfinder continued to expand its strategies for inducing positive investment and amplifying good through the way t...

Julia Pahina is a self-declared ‘walkout’ and ‘trailblazer’. An award-winning social entrepreneur in the space of technology and Artificial Intelligence, she is dedicated to transforming the technology sector through digital equity and diverse representation, specifically by creating pathways for Pacific peoples. Pahina mentors others to build their own autonomy, agency and self-determination, and...

Caren Rangi has over 25 years of experience as a professional Board member for organisations across the private, public, non-for-profit and community sectors. Rangi speaks beautifully about the role of Boards and good governance, and about the process of forging and strengthening relationships, in line with the Māori process of whakawhanaungatanga - which is about creating space to connect with ea...