Value Creation
About me
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Lynette Murray
Lynette brings an internationally informed, locally grounded approach to value creation.
She helps organisations to deliver purpose-led results.
Her services enhance organisational performance and brand impact, integrating shareholder and stakeholder perspectives.
Bio
Lynette brings management and governance expertise across the private, public, and for-purpose sectors. She holds executive training from the University of Oxford (Leading Sustainable Corporations Programme), governance training through the Institute of Directors New Zealand, and tertiary qualifications in business (marketing) and communications from Auckland universities.
Her philanthropic work includes former roles serving as Acting CEO and director of a national foundation. She has also led strategic, creative, and commercial disciplines in senior management roles for organisations in international business environments.
Lynette holds an advisory role on a university Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences centre board, and provides contracting services through her New Zealand-based company.
Strategic | Creative | Commercial
Previous international business roles include leading partnership initiatives promoting destinations, global brands, and entrepreneurial sectors for organisations such as New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, VisitBritain, Spark NZ telco, America's Cup projects, and Air New Zealand. Earlier foundational experience includes a sales leadership role with an Australasian hotel management property group, and with work in Sydney and London.
Her services enhance organisational performance. Expertise offered for contract work spans strategy, commercial performance, people leadership, brand management and development, sustainability, partnerships and business development, marketing, communications, change management, and related operations.
Sustainable Value | Risk Management | Foresight
She applies a globally informed, locally grounded methodology to shift methods of value creation towards triple bottom line outcomes - people, profit, and planet, across key sustainability factors, including:
• Purpose-led business
• Brand integrity
• Protecting the natural environment
• Environmental impacts, climate-related standards
• Social sustainability performance and metrics
• Governance, risk, and reporting
More information is available via the navigation bar or by scrolling down.
Expertise
Organisational Performance & Brand Impact
Services integrate strategic, analytical, creative, and commercial disciplines to enhance organisational performance and brand impact:
Strategy
- Strategic support includes critical evaluation, market research, and insights to inform policy and strategy development, business cases, and implementation. Services extend to organisational planning, budgeting, and performance monitoring, as well as leading change management, mergers, and structural design initiatives.
Brand Development & Management
- As a brand custodian, she develops and manages brands, creative design, identity systems, and asset licensing programmes. Work includes communications, reputation, and stakeholder engagement - across internal, sector, community, government, diplomatic and media audiences - and support for philanthropic services, grants and fundraising.
Sustainability, Risk Management & Strategic Foresight
- A globally informed sustainability methodology - tailored to an entity's unique context with an actionable plan - interconnects organisational purpose, brand integrity, environmental impact and natural resource stewardship, climate-related standards, and social sustainability performance. Non-financial metrics are integrated into governance, risk management, and reporting frameworks to ensure transparency, accountability, and enduring value.
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Business Development & Partnerships
- Experience includes building partnerships and alliances, leading multidisciplinary projects, driving revenue growth, sales leadership, account management and CRM initiatives. Services also include negotiation support, contract management, and overseeing legal interfaces.
Marketing
- Marketing services cover digital transformation and operational efficiencies, campaign performance improvement, and customer experience innovation. She has led product development and data-driven programmes, and has extensive experience in sponsorship and event staging.
See next tab for Credentials
Qualifications & Professional Training:
Graduate Diploma, Communication & PR (Bachelor of Communication Studies & Master of Business modules) Auckland University of Technology, 2002
Postgraduate Diploma in Business (Marketing)
The University of Auckland, 1992
Company Directors' Course & Finance Essentials Course
Institute of Directors New Zealand, 2015
Digital Leadership & Transformation Course
Institute of Directors New Zealand, 2022
Cultural Programme - Māori culture, Tikanga and the Treaty of Waitangi, 2022
Sustainable Finance - Leading in the Climate Transition
Institute of Finance Professionals New Zealand Inc. (INFINZ), 2024
Oxford Leading Sustainable Corporations Programme
University of Oxford, 2022
Professional development and training in methodologies that enable organisations to become, and remain, sustainable within their unique context, across sustainability factors:
Business and brand purpose
Aligning between organisational purpose and stakeholder perspectives, brand integrity, and responsible operations. Integrating shareholder and societal perspectives.
Natural capital, environmental impacts, and climate-related standards
A focus on protecting natural resources, and sustainability practices - particularly organisational impact on climate change. Strategies for reducing carbon emissions, managing climate-related risks and opportunities, and transition planning. Frameworks for transparency, and disclosures, including IFRS-ISSB and TCFD principles to assess risks and opportunities in thematic areas: Governance, Strategy, Risk Management, and Metrics and Targets.
Social sustainability performance and metrics
Assessing the impact and dependence on people and social capital, with metrics across areas such as: philanthropy, health, wellness, human rights, fair labour practices, equity, and community engagement, and in the cultural context. UN SDG intersections/alignment.
Governance, risk, and reporting
Integrating non-financial metrics into governance, risk management, and reporting frameworks.
Not only measuring performance but also accountable for organisational sustainability efforts, embedding these into the broader strategy and operations. Backed by 18 years' governance experience as a director, advisory board member, and executive skilled at working with or reporting to boards.
Affiliations
- University of Oxford Leading Sustainable Corporations Program Alumni Group
- Saïd Business School Elumni Network
- Global Chief Sustainability Officers Network
- INFINZ (Institute of Finance Professionals New Zealand Inc.)
- Institute of Directors New Zealand
- Chapter Zero NZ - The national chapter of the Climate Governance Initiative
See Performance & Brand tab for Services or scroll down to Experience
Experience
Highlights
DIRECTOR & Contractor
iNDEPENDENT
"Lyn is an engaging, collaborative and creative woman who leads from the heart and gets results. I would have her on my team, any day."
Andy Morris (NZ executive mentor for leadership with extensive experience in global finance, risk management, and governance)
Advisory BOARD MEMBER
FACULTY OF MEDICAL & HEALTH SCIENCES, EMC, THE UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND
DIRECTOR
NATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR THE DEAF & HARD-OF-HEARING
ACTING CHIEF EXECUTIVE
NATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR THE DEAF & HARD-OF-HEARING
"Over her time on the board, these skills have been valuable to NFDHH in a number of ways. Lynette took an Acting CEO role at short notice, and very capably managed the organisation, maintaining the confidence of the wider stakeholders. Her strategy experience was continually to the forefront of her thinking at the board table ... Her style is very effective - challenging, constructive, and collegial. ... she has been very valuable on the Board - contributing, reliable, making an impact when needed ..." Chair and Professional Director
SENIOR CONSULTANT
INDEPENDENT & CONSULTANCY FIRM
Fixed term assignments included developing a dual-listed company's first board-approved sustainable business governance framework in the context of their public-private infrastructure investments.
MANAGER TOURISM & ADVISOR, SLT
AUCKLAND COUNCIL, CCO START-UP
Restructured a legacy regional tourism operation during an Auckland Council Controlled Organisation's launch in a company-wide redesign - following central government Auckland Transition Agency reforms and mergers. Additionally, co-designed Auckland's first 10-year visitor economy strategy with economists consultancy Covec and a stakeholder advisory group, to drive tourism growth from NZD 3.6 billion to NZD 6 billion by 2021. (The Auckland Visitor Plan was subsequently operationalised by the consolidated regional tourism division). In 2019, regional tourism receipts were NZD 8.55 billion (Source: freshinfo.co.nz, MRTE).
DIRECTOR MARKETING
NEW ZEALAND TRADE & ENTERPRISE (CROWN ENTITY)
"Lynette worked for me as Marketing Director ... she built a stable and highly committed team that consistently delivered projects on time to a superb standard. The standard of operational and budget management also increased out of sight ... Lynette was instrumental in developing a holistic brand positioning for New Zealand, incorporating both trade and tourism and the closer alignment between the two sectors is now clearly evident. The major trade promotions that she was responsible for around the world were widely admired and provided a strong platform to help New Zealand companies to develop their export markets ... The results spoke for themselves ... Her wide range of experience in the private sector was invaluable in her role ..." Former manager Group GM and Director
COUNTRY MANAGER
VISITBRITAIN (UK DEPT. OF CULTURE, MEDIA & SPORT)
Managed the campaign, trade, media relations, and public diplomacy via the British High Commission NZ, connecting with offshore teams.
BRAND PARTNERSHIPS MANAGER
SPARK NZ (FORMERLY TELECOM NZ) & America's Cup
"I met Lynette in my role as ESPN's chief negotiator for television rights to the America's Cup. She was a genuine star during the complicated and lengthy negotiations for television coverage of the Cup. ... She represented the interests of her employer very effectively. She demonstrated excellent team building and negotiating skills. She had a very good working knowledge of the relevant business terms of the deal as well as the worldwide and United States-specific media issues that were involved. Ms Murray is a splendid ambassador for New Zealand. I always found her manner to be thoroughly professional and unfailingly pleasant." Former colleague VP and General Counsel
MARKETING PROGRAMMES MANAGER
AIR NEW ZEALAND
"I spent a few years working for Lynette. Lynette was an early female leader and made a positive impression on me ... Early leaders are important influencers. Lynette demonstrated polish, tenacity and an endless capacity for improvement. Inclusivity was not a 'topic,' it was a natural leadership behaviour embodied by Lynette. This was an era of airlines leading customer experience innovation and she empowered her team to question, solve and deliver. We were a high performing team, encouraged to be our best selves." Former direct report, ASX-listed company CEO and Independent Director
DIRECTOR OF SALES (COMMERCIAL)
NZ, Fiji, TAHITI
INTERCONTINENTAL HOTELS GROUP (FORMERLY SOUTHERN PACIFIC HOTEL CORPORATION)
CAREER