Māori business leader Rachel Taulelei says being appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit this week is an “absolute honour,” placing her among a legacy of influential Māori leaders.
“I look at, say, Rawinia Higgins, who was a recent recipient, or Tom Roa who was in this year’s group, or Pania Tyson-Nathan. These are all people who simply do what they do and they excel at it,” says Taulelei.
“They’re doing it fundamentally for all the right reasons, not for the accolades. No one does it for the heads up, so what an absolute honour to be able to follow in some of those footsteps.”
Taulelei (Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Ngāti Huia ki Katihiku, Ngāti Rārua) received the New Years honour for her services to business, Māori development and governance. She is an award-winning leader and entrepreneur who has made an enduring contribution to New Zealand through her leadership in sustainable enterprise, Māori economic development and international trade.
The honour comes a decade after her appointment as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2016, reflecting her achievements and influence since then.
She has taken on governance roles across a wide range of sectors, including as Chair of Moana New Zealand, Wellington Regional Stadium Trust (Sky Stadium), New Zealand Rugby Appointments and Remuneration Panel, and Fonterra’s Sustainability Advisory Panel. She has acted as a Director for Sealord, The Warehouse Group, Mercury New Zealand, ANZCO Foods and Wellington Airport.
One of her main focuses now is on Oho, a cultural design and brand strategy she co-founded alongside Tabitha Harris, that supports organisations to embed authentic Māori and Indigenous values into their identity, strategy and global storytelling.
“What’s amazing about that is obviously Tabitha and I are both Māori, so we step through it in the way that we do, thinking-Māori doing-Māori, but we help a lot oftentimes non-Māori companies reach a space that’s very much of Aotearoa.”
Māori values and commercial success not mutually exclusive
Taulelei’s honour is a recognition of leadership that has shown how Māori values and commercial success are not mutually exclusive but mutually reinforcing.
“If you look at Māori and you look at us as people, we’ve been traders since the beginning and we’ve been fishermen and farmers and we were the first people who were exporting from Aotearoa. We were supporting the people who were migrating to Aotearoa until they could get established. So we understand trade. That is no problem at all,” says Taulelei.
“It also doesn’t change the people that we are. So when you can find those moments to really be yourself, to know what your values are and then also to be able to live those in the environments that you find yourself with – and for me, often it’s a corporate environment – they become arguably even more important.”
While it can be hard to incorporate tikanga Māori into a non-Māori setting, she says the practice of Māori values manifests itself in a more “intrinsic” way in corporate spaces.
“There are ways that we act, there are ways we think, there are ways that we do that aren’t inherently Māori that, in fact, oftentimes they’re just really good people principles, of generosity or caring for people, manaaki and being good kaitiaki or, thinking about things in a pono way.”
Empowering wāhine Māori and rangatahi
Taulelei is often the only woman, and almost always the only wāhine Māori, at the boardroom table.
“It’s changing but I wouldn’t say it’s changing rapidly. Those of us who are at the table need to create the opportunities to bring more people with us, to keep our eyes open for what are the opportunities for our wāhine Māori, because we’re not the great greatest self-promoters,” she says.
“When we step into these spaces where there are not many Māori, not many wāhine Māori, you can’t hide from that. That’s in fact the time to really hold tight to who you are and use it as a strength.”
Taulelei is helping build the next generation of leaders by establishing associate director programmes on every board she chairs, creating pathways for rangatahi Māori to gain firsthand boardroom experience.
“If I look across, say Moana and Sealord, in the time that I was sitting on the board there, which was four years, I managed to have seven young Māori potential governors come through and experience what it’s like to sit on the board of the largest fishing entity in Aotearoa.”
Businesses can play a role through education
According to Te Ōhanga Māori, the Māori Economy report, the Māori asset base had grown from $69 billion in 2018 to $126 billion in 2023. The Māori economic contribution to the New Zealand economy had grown from $17 billion in 2018 to $32 billion in 2023.
While Māori assets and economic contribution to Aotearoa increase, Māori remain hugely overrepresented in statistics like incarceration, ill health, poverty and under-education. Taulelei says, from a business standpoint, “ensuring that our tamariki, rangatahi are getting great education in the right fields” could help.
She says businesses can play a role by feeding back into the education system the skills they need now and will need over the next decade.
“If we had a view within business as to what we were going to be needing and feed that back through in the education system, I think you can get some better outcomes in getting the right qualifications at the right time.”
Tokomanawa Queens
Taulelei chairs and co-owns the Tokomanawa Queens professional women’s basketball team, also providing opportunities for wāhine.
“It’s beautiful to see these incredible athletes – from not only New Zealand but all over the world – to see them excelling and then to see our kids, to see our tamariki interact with them.”
Taulelei says young girls often drop out of sports like basketball early because boys don’t pass them the ball. So Tokomanawa Queens has created girls only leagues.
“It just gives them permission to participate and makes them know that the sport is for them.”
Taulelei says support from her whānau, especially her husband and daughter, throughout her career and been “irreplaceable and priceless”.
“You cannot do the things that I have had the privilege of doing without having their full support and accommodation in doing that,” she says.
Rachel Taulelei’s other accolades:
- She represented New Zealand on the APEC Business Advisory Panel from 2019 to 2024 and chaired the Council during New Zealand’s 2021 hosting year.
- She has helped elevate New Zealand’s voice on sustainable trade, indigenous business and inclusive economic development.
- Her youth involvement includes time as a Trustee of the Young Enterprise Trust, Blake Trust and Queen Margaret College.
- Taulelei advises Huia Publishers and the New Zealand Story Group on how to amplify indigenous narratives and New Zealand’s identity globally.
- Te Herenga Waka Victoria University Distinguished Alumni Award (2021)
- KEA World Class New Zealand Award (2019)
- Māori Woman Business Leader Award (2018)
