Michele Embling has been chosen as chair of PwC New Zealand. A partner at the firm for 11 years, a member of the executive team for four years and with a total of almost 16 years at the firm, Embling will assume her new role on October 1. She succeeds Jonathan Freeman, who has been chair since June 2012. “Michele has led our Assurance practice for the past three years and has a successful track record of leading transformation projects. She is widely respected in the market for her ability to influence and bring people together,” said CEO and senior partner Bruce Hassall.

Michele Embling.

Orion Health has announced the appointment of Ronald Andrews as an independent director of the company. Andrews has close to 30 years in governance and executive roles in the US clinical and molecular diagnostics industry. He sits on the Board of Directors for several companies, and is active on a number of charitable boards. He has extensive experience working with the US government in Washington and speaks regularly to industry groups. The announcement comes just days ahead of Orion Health’s annual meeting, which will take place in Auckland on September 22.

Social value technology company Wh?nau Tahi has acquired SimplHealth Limited, an international software company which specialises in safe and immediate patient information sharing and payment management. Wh?nau Tahi managing director Ray Noonan said his organisation is seeking to tackle the largest challenges in supporting whanau and communities to achieve their wellbeing aspirations. “With the acquisition of Simpl, we’ll gain experience and expertise to provisioning the entire social service chain, from planning, delivery, contract, payments and data validation. Importantly, this acquisition progresses our US market ambitions.”

Former Xero executive James Maiocco has joined Pushpay. Maiocco was previously general manager of business and corporate development at Xero, and will now serve as Pushpay’s chief business development officer, based out of Redmond, Washington in the United States. Pushpay CEO Chris Heaslip said the move would go a long way towards a US$72 million ACMR target before 2018.

James Maiocco.

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