Who got that job?

Job title: General manager, Maori development, Accident Compensation Corporation

Chad Tipene Brown's interest was piqued by this job advertisement because it seemed the Accident Compensation Corporation was serious about helping Maori.

Despite being happily self-employed as a health consultant, Brown saw the newly created job as an opportunity to help his people.

The third of seven children brought up in the small northern community of Te Kao, Brown did a commerce degree at Auckland University.

He has worked in consulting and management positions in the health sector for the last nine years, focusing on Maori development.

Brown has tribal affiliations stretching from Te Aupouri in the Far North and Kai Tahu, from Puketeraki, just outside Dunedin.

"My engagement in Maori development is part of who I am," says Brown, who is also heavily involved with an Auckland kapahaka (Maori performance) group which has won national competitions.

Helping Maori development, he says, is "part of my heritage and part of my obligation to my people."

Brown says the ACC has "all the hallmarks of wanting to do better".

After seeing the statistics showing Maori were over-represented in accident rates, Brown decided he wanted the job.

"The key thing for me is to make a difference to the ACC as an organisation," he says. "And I want to see an improvement in the [accident] rates."

However, achieving that goal will take time and Brown says he will focus first on improving the organisation internally.

More than 150 of the ACC's 2300 staff are Maori, and Brown says he intends to gather their ideas and concerns to plan how the organisation can better serve its Maori customers.

Brown will also visit Maori iwi and groups, gathering information on ways in which the ACC can better deal with the communities.