Emma Pennington-Foley

Emma specialises in helping organisations rethink how they work and grow, including how they’re led. She has deep experience in designing operating models, shaping organisational structures, planning and developing workforces, and guiding people through change – from first ideas to full implementation.

Emma believes successful change starts with understanding the journey people need to take, not just the end result. She’s known for listening closely to different perspectives within the client’s organisation, and building alignment with where it’s heading. She makes complex change feel achievable, and helps leaders and teams move forward together.

Before she joined us, Emma spent 19 years in a large global consulting firm in both the UK and Aotearoa. Her earlier career was spent in international and expatriate taxation.

Examples of Emma’s work

• Emma led the redesign of an enterprise operating model for a national kaupapa Māori tertiary education provider, along with the organisation design and change experience journey, to provide a blueprint to help the organisation undertake their biggest-ever transformation.
• Emma has worked with many government agencies to review proposed structural redesigns of key functions, providing them with constructive feedback to test and challenge the proposals and to strengthen their efficiency and effectiveness.
• She led the organisation design of a new Kaupapa Māori and Cultural Communities function of a Crown agent, with a pragmatic implementation roadmap that was aligned with the organisation’s rautaki Māori (Māori strategy) and its fiscal parameters.
• When one of New Zealand’s biggest public-sector organisations undertook an enterprise-wide restructure, Emma supported its formal staff consultation processes. She led the development of the consultation documents, communications with staff, and engagement sessions, along with ministerial briefings on cost and timing.