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The 2025 Long-Term Sustainability Survey is now open.
The 2025 survey explores how organisations embed long-term sustainability, purpose and effective governance across for-profit, not-for-profit and government sectors. It provides practical, forward-looking insights for leaders and boards.
It covers:
- Governance and board leadership – how boards integrate purpose, strategy, and culture and assess their own effectiveness.
- CEO incentives and alignment – how executive motivation, pay and incentives support long-term goals.
- Leadership in action – how senior leaders embed purpose and values to drive engagement and performance.
- Sustainability strategy – how organisations prioritise, invest in and overcome barriers to ESG initiatives.
Participants will gain early access to insights into key priorities, potential bottlenecks and opportunities to strengthen long-term performance, while contributing to cutting-edge research on sustainable organisations.
This research continues as part of a PhD project.
About the survey
Key goals of the initiative:
- Generate practical insights – we will create new knowledge that directly benefits businesses, not-for-profits, local and central government, regulators and policymakers, ensuring actionable findings for effective decision-making.
- Strengthen academic and industry links – this initiative seeks to establish a robust connection between academia and the public, private and not-for-profit sectors in New Zealand.
- Empower stakeholders – Our research will provide organisations and all other stakeholders transparency and benchmarking tools, enabling them to assess their performance relative to peers and strive for excellence.
This research is informed by the advisory board at the Leadership and Governance Collective, which consists of industry leaders, CEOs and governance professionals. We appreciate their valuable expertise and insights.
- Brooke Roberts, founder and Co-CEO of Sharesies, who brings extensive leadership experience in startups, scale-ups and B Corps, as well as governance expertise in both for-profit and charitable organisations.
- Tahana Tippett-Tapsell, General Manager at Tūaropaki Trust and with multiple governance roles, provides valuable insights into Māori businesses, championing long-term prosperity for Māori communities and iwi.
- James Lee, CEO of Toronto-listed HEALWELL AI and former CEO of Jarden. He also provides strategic advice to boards on long-term strategy, aligning stakeholder interests and developing cohesive cultures.
- Rhiannon McKinnon, founder of CEO 101, CEO at Cassiobury, former CEO of Kiwi Wealth and was named CEO of the Year at the 2022 Asia-Pacific SABRE Awards.
- Kalyn Ponti, CEO of Humankind, played a key role in introducing the Best Place to Work Awards to New Zealand and is dedicated to demonstrating that thriving people and commercial success go hand in hand.
- Sophia van Zijl, on the board of Armillary Capital and a strategic consultant to NZX and former Chief People Officer at JB Were, provides expertise in governance, financial management and strategic people leadership and focuses on leveraging employee engagement to drive commercial success and long-term value.
- Michael McCarthy, holds multiple governance roles and has a background in leadership, including as former CEO of Farmers Collective and former CFO of Wellington Hospital. He brings extensive experience from both the primary and private sectors.
We thank our organisational partners, which include the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER), BusinessNZ, Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ), Creative HQ, The CEO Institute, and New Zealand Growth Capital Partners (NZGCP), as well as more than 40 industry associations and organisations that support the distribution of the survey.
Read more about this initiative: Harnessing NZ leaders and universities for enhanced organisational performance - Massey University
Who we are
Susanna Lee
Associate Professor Claire Matthews
Dr Jeffrey Stangl
Future surveys:
- October 2026: Modern leadership
Confidentiality
Confidentiality is essential for maintaining research integrity as it promotes trust between researchers and participants.
We guarantee the confidentiality of all survey responses. All information and data received from the School of Economics and Finance Survey is protected. All survey responses will be published in an aggregated manner, no identifiable responses will be reported.
Contact us
Email Susanna.Lee@massey.ac.nz