Livia Esterhazy appointed CEO of WWF-New Zealand

Livia Esterhazy appointed CEO of WWF-New Zealand

An experienced and highly connected business leader has been appointed to the helm of WWF-New Zealand.

The WWF-New Zealand Board is delighted to announce the appointment of Livia Esterhazy as the conservation organisation’s new Chief Executive Officer.

Ms Esterhazy recently retired from the role of Managing Director at Clemenger BBDO where she successfully led the modernisation of the Wellington-based business. She will begin her new role at WWF-New Zealand on 15 May 2017.

Dr Morgan Williams, Chair of the WWF Board of Trustees, said: “Livia Esterhazy was the outstanding candidate in a large field of very good applicants”.

“We were searching for inspirational leadership skills for the organisation, a strategic thinker with financial acumen, great communication capabilities and charisma, good networks and someone who can strongly advocate the what and why of WWF-New Zealand’s work,” Dr Williams said.

“Above all, we needed someone with a deep passion for WWF’s mission – living in harmony with nature. Livia ticks all these boxes and more and we are delighted with the appointment.”

With French, Australian and shortly New Zealand citizenship, Ms Esterhazy is in many ways a global citizen who has now put roots down with her family in Aotearoa. After more than a decade managing advertising agencies, she has reached a point in her career where she wants to apply her commercial expertise to make a positive contribution to the wider social good. She is hugely passionate about sustainability and environmental matters, and sees this role as an exciting opportunity to raise the success of a leading brand with conservation and environmental sustainability at its core.

Ms Esterhazy said: “I am so thrilled and excited to be leading such a dedicated and knowledgeable team and iconic brand”.

“New Zealand’s natural environment is taonga and the potential for a country to truly live out the WWF mission of living in harmony with nature is greatest here,” she said. “I’m looking forward to being on this journey and making a very real difference.”

Ms Esterhazy succeeds Chris Howe who stepped down as Executive Director after 10 years in January 2017 to take up the newly created role of Director of Projects and Development with the Asia Regional Office of IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), based in Bangkok.

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