Christine Hall

For Christine Hall, the Waikato MBA has provided the confidence to truly understand her value and purpose. It has also transformed her career, having stepped into her second chief executive role at the age of 37.

Christine came to New Zealand to go travelling with her backpack when she was 24. She loved it so much that she decided to stay, working as an occupational therapist at Waikato District Health Board.

She was promoted to operations manager in 2012, with responsibility for delivering adult mental health services across the Waikato region.

A few years later, Christine was looking to progress her career in a new direction. She could see that the Waikato MBA would provide her with a more generic management skillset, allowing her to diversify out of the health sector.

"I was looking for a business qualification that would enable me to move into senior management roles in other industries with confidence," she explains.

"The Waikato MBA most definitely helped me achieve this. All these years down the track, I’m still using many of the tools that I was given."

She admits to loving the programme from day one. “I loved learning about different industries and understanding what was transferable between different organisations and roles, and it gave me a clearer sense of my own strengths as a manager compared to other people in different fields.”

"I loved learning about marketing and strategy, and being pushed outside my comfort zone with accounting papers. Going to China on the MBA study tour and learning about business from a whole new perspective was an incredible experience too."

Christine acknowledges the MBA was a big commitment. “There were lots of sacrifices as the study is intensive. I chose the weekend programme, so every other weekend I was in class, and the weeks in-between involved writing assignments.”

“At the time I was mum to a two-year-old and a five-year-old, so balancing work, study and family was a little tricky at times! I feel very happy and fulfilled knowing my family have seen me succeed and achieve my career goals."

She found the group assignments both challenging and rewarding.

“They were challenging because it meant working with people who have a totally different world view and delivering a common product. This was where the richness of learning came from – learning to work with other people with different world views and experience, and the need to sometimes forgo the way you would do things for the sake of the group process.”

Shortly after completing her MBA studies in 2015, Christine was appointed to her first chief executive role at LinkPeople, a social housing provider that supports people with complex needs.

She says, "I was able to put all my MBA skills into practice and add value to the organisation right from the start."

After honing her leadership skills, Christine was able to springboard into her current role as Chief Executive Officer at Pinnacle Ventures Ltd, a social enterprise focused on digital innovation in healthcare to deliver better outcomes.

She knows her second CEO role would not have happened if she hadn’t studied.

“I now use the skills I learned every single day, and my latest role is a further stretch to build upon the foundations I learned through the programme.”

Her career pathway keeps getting better and better, and she directly attributes that to her Waikato MBA experience.