Riding the Roller Coaster as an Exec Woman in Tech

Happy New Year to all our members. We hope you had a great start to the new year and an enjoyable Christmas break!

Our first event for 2025 is hosted by Stella Ward, CEO at Streamliners.

Stella will share her experiences as CDO and CIO of the year finalist with a relatively public resignation, learning the ropes within central government as a Programme Director and building collaboration across government agencies; onto a multi-national Tech sales role and redundancy, then to her dream job as CEO of a growing multi-national Health – Tech and Content company with their HQ in her favourite city – Christchurch.”
This is our standard ‘Chatham rules’ environment so you can ask Stella anything about her story to date.

Stella joined Streamliners as their CEO in January 2024 to deliver the innovation and performance needed to steer the rapidly growing organisation into the future.

Her career has focused on technological progress, sound governance, and outcomes-focused people leadership. Recognised for her advocacy for innovation and leadership in digital health, Stella led New Zealand’s All of Government Cloud Programme as the Executive Director within the office of the Government Chief Digital Officer at the Department of Internal Affairs.

She also spearheaded a significant data and digital transformation as the Chief Digital Officer at Canterbury and West Coast District Health Boards. Stella’s multiple executive leadership roles have included a 10-year stint at Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) as Executive Director Allied Heath and Chief Digital Officer.

One of her many responsibilities at the CDHB was the development of Christchurch’s Te Papa Hauora Health Precinct, now an essential part of the regeneration of the city.

Stella is a strong supporter of many aspects of the Christchurch tech industry and currently holds several governance roles for not-for-profit organisations. She studied Speech and Language Therapy at University of Canterbury and has a Master of Health Sciences from Otago University.