Being centre-stage isn’t exactly where 24-year-old Te Aorangi Murphy-Fell wants to be, but becoming a trailblazer may inadvertently place him there as a future leader.
Murphy-Fell (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Apa) is the youngest member of the Institute of Directors (IoD) to go through the chartered pathway. While it’s not a legislative requirement to sit on a board, the chartered status demonstrates a commitment and dedication to the role of governance and its principles. More commonly undertaken by directors and executives from the mid-stages in their executive careers, Murphy-Fell is a bit of an anomaly.
Completing his bachelor of management studies with honours in 2019 at Waikato University, and more recently his master’s in Māori language excellence, Murphy-Fell works fulltime for his family’s consultancy company, Haemata, which supports Māori education and language initiatives, working primarily with the public sector.
But Murphy-Fell says governance is a huge passion, which he sees as a long-term focus. He currently sits on three boards - BayTrust, which is appointed by the Minister of Finance, Squash Bay of Plenty, and as an independent member on the investment committee for the New Zealand Hepatitis Foundation, where he provides independent financial oversight.
“I see governance as a way of being able to have a voice on quite important kaupapa ... I think it’s also quite important to have that young voice at the table,” he says.
Murphy-Fell is the youngest member of the Institute of Directors to go through the chartered pathway.
One of the biggest challenges he observes for young people wanting to dip their toes into the governance space is a lack of knowledge of how to get there, as well as a barrier to gain that initial experience.
“The willingness of young people wanting to be on boards is there, but people my age don’t have that experience, right? We’ve only been working for the best part of a few years, so to expect us to have had governance experience on top of that is quite unrealistic,” he says of boards needing to be open if they want diversity, and making sure these opportunities are accessible through the recruitment process.
Conversely, his advice for young people with their sights set on board roles is, first of all, to be considerate of everyone’s views.
“It’s important not to come in and make it sound like you know everything, even if there are certain kaupapa where you feel that might be the case ... it’s important to make sure you’re balancing that with a certain level of respect. Technically, I’m dealing with people my parents’ age, so I’m trying to manage that, while not coming across as being ‘whakahīhī’, which is being too proud of yourself,” he says.
A prerequisite to gaining chartered membership, Murphy-Fell had to attend a range of governance courses, including the IoD’s Company Directors’ Course - a hands-on and interactive, week-long workshop that requires attendees to take part in board simulations.
Te Aorangi Murphy-Fell.
“In terms of preparing me for the future, it was absolutely fantastic, particularly when I consider crisis management and human resource management,” Murphy-Fell says.
Attendees are thrown in the deep end and allocated board roles. As a group, they need to solve financial and strategic problems, identify risks and analyse insights from board papers, as well as deal with crisis scenarios - all provided as prompts throughout the week. The stakes are high and attendees are expected to participate fully and perform in these ‘real-world scenarios’, which also brings in the nuance of appointing a CEO and managing director, and dealing with the reality of board dynamics.
In short, it’s sink or swim, but in a safe space that allows people to fail and have robust debates.
“It really throws you ... and brings you back to the fundamentals and core principles of governance,” Murphy-Fell says of his experience.
Moving forward, his eyes are fixed firmly on making a difference at the top – with large company boards at the top of his wishlist.
“If there was an NZX board that came up to me today, absolutely, I’d consider it. It’s a matter of whether it’s possible or not, but I’ve never really heard of people as young as me sitting on those types of boards,” he says.
Ambitious, focused and passionate about governance, Murphy-Fell describes himself as ‘fortunate’ to be where he is today. He also sees a huge opportunity for Māori as future decision-makers for Aotearoa’s businesses and boards. But he also says change needs to take place to ensure boards are looking after those they bring in who have ‘cultural capability’ as part of their skill-set.
“Boards need to understand how to look after Māori on [their boards], but also to understand that you don’t just have Māori there to tick a box,” he says of the reality of dealing with cultural expectations.
He points to examples of being called on at the last minute to perform karakia or whaikōrero [speeches], without being asked in advance and with that courtesy not being there.
“I think boards [need to be] prepared, for instance, before going for visits to the marae and making sure that whoever you’re expecting to do the mihi, [you ask the person first]. For anyone else, you’d normally make sure that they’re okay with it. So, bearing in mind that it’s an additional pressure that gets placed on Māori on top of their board roles.”
Murphy-Fell says boards and organisations have some work to do. “My understanding is that it’s better than it was, but we still have a little way to go,” he says.
Sonia Yee is a senior writer for the Institute of Directors’ Boardroom magazine.
