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Job title: General manager, services

For: Wairarapa District Health Board


A new job in the Masterton is a return home for Joe Howells. He was born in the wine town of Martinborough, and has been away 35 years.

But the desire to live "in a great place to bring up kids" and get a better balance between life and work prompted the move.

Howells, his wife and family made the decision to move south with no job for him in mind, just the "reasonable assumption" that something would crop up between there and Wellington. He was delighted to get just what he was seeking.

Howells, who has an Auckland University MBA, a BCom, and a post-graduate diploma in health economics, wasn't always seeking jobs in health. When first approached about a job in the field, Howells, who has a commerce background and counts the Union Shipping Group among the companies on his CV, said he wasn't interested.

But he was persuaded, and has worked in general management for Aetna Health, the Waikato and Bay of Plenty health bodies and until June will be Counties Manukau DHB's general manager of integrated care.

After that he will be focusing on developing community-based primary care for the 40,000 people of the Wairarapa DHB, which he sees as small and cohesive enough to be a "showcase" of state health service.

"I'm really look forward to it," he says.

"They seem like a great team, and it's nice to work in a small, tight-knit team."