Our people
Rose Geden – Executive Director
Rose was appointed as Executive Director of the New Zealand Private Surgical Hospitals Association Inc. in October 2007. Previous roles held include Executive Officer of the NZ College of Physiotherapy Inc, positions in continuing medical education and vocational education at the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners and contract work. Rose is based in the Association’s office in Wellington.
Richard Whitney – President
Richard Whitney Richard is the Chief Executive Officer of Mercy Hospital Dunedin Ltd, an entity of the Sisters of Mercy New Zealand Ministries Trust. He is a graduate of both Otago and Massey universities and has over 30 years health experience, across Public and Private, Primary and Secondary sectors in New Zealand and overseas. In addition to his CEO role, he also holds Directorships with Mercy Heart Centre, Mercy Cancer Care and is a Director of NZ Red Cross. Richard was elected to NZPSHA Executive in 2011, taking the lead in Health Workforce Development portfolio.
Steve Soufflot – Vice-President
Steve Soufflot Steve is General Manager of Kensington Hospital in Whangarei, a position he has held since 2008.This role also oversees the Primecare Medical Centre, a 6 GP General Practice.
Prior to shifting to Whangarei, Steve held General Manager and Human Resource Manager roles at Medlab Hamilton. He has over thirty years experience in public and private health sector positions in New Zealand.
Steve has a special interest in staffing, leadership and change management. He sits on the Northland branch committee of the Human Resource Institute of New Zealand.
Steve was elected onto the NZPSHA executive in September 2013.
Greg Brooks
Greg Brooks is the CEO of St George’s Hospital in Christchurch. St George’s is a registered charity established in 1927. Greg is also a director of three subsidiary companies and four joint ventures including the St George’s Cancer Care Centre and Heart Centre @ St George’s.
Prior to Greg’s appointment as Chief Executive, he was the Chief Financial Officer at St George’s for 15 years.
Greg worked in the public health system in senior financial roles for 5 years prior to joining the senior management team at St George’s.
Greg was elected as an executive member of the NZPSHA in September 2012 and was elected President in September 2013.
Maree Cassidy
Maree is the General Manager, Operations at MercyAscot Hospital in Auckland where she is responsible for the operational leadership of the inpatient wards, operating rooms, pharmacy, afterhours advanced nursing team and clinical education services. Her particular focus is to work with the operations workforce to identify opportunities for improved efficiency, communication, leadership and culture.
Maree has completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Health Science with a focus on clinical leadership and the University of Auckland Business School’s Hillary Leadership Programme. She has held the position of Professional Nurse Advisor and is a previous chair of the NZPSHA Directors of Nursing Group.
Richard Grenfell
Director Acurity Health Group Ltd.
Richard is a qualified specialist anaesthetist. With a number of peers, Richard established Boulcott Hospital in Lower Hutt where he took the roll of Managing Director while he also continued his clinical practice.
Richard was a Director of Wakefield Hospital Wellington when it was first bought by a group of medical practitioners.
Richard joined Evolution Healthcare Ltd when it purchased Boulcott Hospital in 2012 and he joined the Board of Acurity Health Group Ltd in 2016.
Richards’ qualifications include a Bachelor of Medicine Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Otago, Diploma of Obstetrics from the University of Auckland and he is a Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists.
Janet Keys
General Manager Norfolk Southern Cross Ltd – Grace Hospital
Janet is a hospital trained RN, and she went on to complete BN and PG Cert in Nursing (Wintec) before completing a Masters in Health Service Management (Massey). As General Manager of Grace Hospital, which is owned by a joint venture partnership between Acurity Health Group and Southern Cross Hospitals, Janet utilises her nursing background to ensure that hospital services are delivered effectively and with attention to detail for individual patients.
Janet strongly believes in ongoing professional development, and supported the development of a Nurse Practitioner Internship programme at Grace Hospital which produced two NPs in recent years. New Zealand’s changing health environment requires us to develop a flexible workforce and Janet is supportive of challenging the status quo to encourage the development of different approaches to deliver health services to achieve best outcomes for patients.
Terry Moore
As Chief Executive Officer of New Zealand’s largest national private surgical hospital group, Terry’s role incorporates the leadership, strategic direction and operational management of Southern Cross’ ten not-for-profit hospitals. He also plays a major role in the management of the numerous joint venture partnerships that complete a growing hospital network.
Prior to his current appointment, Terry’s eight year career with the company has seen him hold several senior positions, including Chief Financial Officer for the Southern Cross Healthcare Group.
From 1988 – 1998, Terry held a variety of influential financial and commercial roles in the Public Healthcare sector.
Philippa Pringle
Philippa is the Director of Clinical Services at Mercy Hospital Dunedin – a position she has held since March 2005. Prior to this she held a variety of clinical, and nursing leadership roles predominantly within the public sector, in Intensive Care Units in New Zealand, Australia and the United States of America.
Philippa completed her initial nursing training in Otago with subsequent post graduate qualifications and a Masters of Health Science gained through the University of Otago.
Philippa has a keen interest in partnering with consumers to improve their health care experience, innovation in nursing practice and enhancing collaboration within the nursing profession.
She is a member of Nurse Executives of New Zealand (NENZ).
Bernadette East – Co-Chair Nurse and Clinical Leaders Group
Bernadette East Director of Nursing at Bidwill Trust Hospital Timaru. Bernadette trained as a registered nurse at Timaru hospital and had a background in PACU / surgical nursing. Her interest has been in developing the Quality Risk Management Systems.
Bernadette has a strong educational focus within the hospitals and is involved in teaching and mentoring staff in professional development. Bernadette believes an educated professional nursing group improves the quality of patient care and outcomes.
Judith Vercoe – Co-Chair Nurse and Clinical Leaders Group
Judith is the Quality Coordinator at Mercy Hospital Dunedin, where her role aims to positively influence quality improvement across both clinical and non-clinical areas. Her focus is fostering collaboration within teams and across departments to improve the patient experience.
Judith is an RN who completed a Master of Health Sciences at University of Otago and gained significant experience in quality improvement science during her occupational health and safety roles in both the corporate and education sectors prior to returning to a hospital environment.
Judith served four years as National President of the New Zealand Occupational Health Nurses Association and was granted life membership in 2013.