Editor’s Letter – M2woman Summer 2026 Issue

Leadership has never looked like one thing. It does not follow a single path or arrive in a neat straight line. As we pulled this issue together and listened to the voices on stage at Journey to Excellence in Christchurch, we were reminded just how differently success can look in a life. The journeys can be random, messy, uncertain and widely different. Yet underneath all of these stories, I think there are some consistent themes, particularly purpose, grit and care.

Tracey Ryan’s story begins in the paddocks of rural Ireland, holding a survey staff for her father long before she was leading Aurecon’s work on some of New Zealand’s most complex infrastructure projects. Her version of leadership is not about having all the answers, but about being brave enough to ask the right questions.

Kristy Brown grew up in a world shaped by instability and scarcity, watching her mother create small islands of order inside chaos. Today, she leads Fusion5’s New Zealand business across technology, AI and automation, doing exactly that at scale. Her leadership shows how a childhood of “making do” can become an adult superpower for creating structure, safety and performance for others.

For Hannah Walton at Metlifecare, leadership sits at the intersection of strategy and humanity. She carries one of the broadest portfolios in aged care, but keeps returning to simple questions: how older New Zealanders feel in their homes, and how her teams feel at work. Curiosity, listening and context are not “soft skills” in her world. They are the operating system.

Dawn Engelbrecht built scale with heart. She grew a six-child after-school programme into a network that cares for thousands of children a day, then brought that experience to Kitchen Studio. She thinks in terms of shared success, whether it is franchisees buying their first homes or owners weathering tough quarters together. Her leadership reminds us that growth can be fast without being extractive.

Lisa Oakley’s journey has the energy of a comeback. She left corporate life with no client list, went through IVF, divorce and a start-up launched in lockdown, and still built People Associates into one of New Zealand’s most successful people, culture and workplace consultancies. Her story is a reminder that careers don’t have to be linear to be powerful.

Then there is Turet Knuefermann, who over two decades has grown a fashion label that has become a kind of uniform for women who know themselves. Her success has been built less through noise and more through trust, intuition and consistency.

Those same threads ran through our recent Journey to Excellence event in Christchurch.

Growing up in Northern Ireland during the “Troubles” taught James Laughlin how dangerous simple stories can be, and how powerful it is to really see the person across the table.

Michelle Batchelor has lived in two demanding arenas. In the ring, she fought as Michelle “Pressure” Preston, winning world titles. In business, she leads Life Plus and Preston & Blythe. Her leadership is built on repetition, clarity and the ability to keep moving in ninth-round moments when fatigue hits and there is nowhere to hide.

Peri Drysdale’s leadership has been forged over decades of building brands that combine design, quality and a deep commitment to New Zealand and to the planet. Her story shows how a long-term view, uncompromising quality and care for people and place can sit at the centre of a global brand.

On the technology front, Danu Abeysuriya shared his journey from a garage to leading one of the country’s most innovative AI and product studios. He has built Rush around a simple idea: technology should better serve people. He leads with experimentation, humility and a focus on practical outcomes.

Together, the speakers and the women profiled in these pages map out very different routes. Rural paddocks, fast food counters, school halls, care villages, boxing gyms, garages, ateliers and boardrooms. Different industries. Different obstacles. Different accelerators.

Success, as these women and men remind us, is not a single destination. It is the accumulation of small, often unseen decisions taken over years. It is the courage to keep evolving, even when no one is watching, and the permission we give ourselves to lead in a way that feels true, whether that is in a boardroom, a clinic, a classroom, a studio or an atelier.

Here’s to the many forms leadership can take. And to the courage it takes to own your version of it.