Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana

When Lexie Kirkconnell-Kawana left school at the age of 16 to start university, she admits she was both “quite naive about career options” and at the same time “stubborn and determined to forge a qualification bespoke to my diverse interests”.

Thankfully for her, she found a place that catered to just those needs.

“The University of Auckland offered a rich smorgasbord of flexible learning pathways that allowed me to explore and experiment till I settled on the right fit,” she says. “I was very fortunate that many of my lecturers and the administrative staff never tried to curb my enthusiasm, but enabled me and advocated for my learning development needs.”

Lexie eventually decided to pursue law, as well as psychology and political studies, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in 2013, before also earning a Master of Laws from Victoria University of Wellington in 2016.

Since then, she has carved out a career path that has been anything but run-of-the-mill. She has held roles spanning the fields of research, investigation, policy and community building, and she has spent time in private practice, independent government bodies and regulatory organisations, including the New Zealand Office of Film and Literature Classification and the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority.

That diverse background prepared her well for her current position as the CEO of Impress, an independent press monitor in the UK. Dedicated to shaping a more trustworthy media landscape, Lexie’s role is inherently multidisciplinary, covering media, law and human rights, human behaviour and psychology.

“The cookie-cutter career path fell away for me a long time ago,” she says. “But it makes sense looking back how I’ve ended up where I am: leading a regulator with such a big mission, at the cutting edge of addressing information harm.”

One of the most rewarding parts of her job is seeing the impact her work has: “Hundreds of independent news publishers and thousands of journalists working to ethical standards co-created with their community and tens of millions of readers getting access to news published with integrity to inform and educate them and help them make sense of the world.”

Lexie says it was her family, and in particular the wāhine toa in her life, including her late grandmother Diane Kawana, who instilled in her the value of working in public service.

She also draws inspiration from “those thinkers tackling the big, tough questions of our time and the community leaders turning those solutions into practice”.

One of the most important lessons about leadership she has personally learnt along the way is “you cannot qualify or specialise yourself into authority”.

“For the longest time I thought being the subject matter expert would open doors and force those who had dismissed me to sit up and pay attention. You can lose yourself in that, what is ultimately a solipsistic exercise. Good faith and investing in meaningful relationships were the qualities that set me up to lead and support others.”

Ultimately though, it’s her passion for what she does that drives her forward.
“I love the work I do and it shows,” she says.

“I believe that the service we’ve built is valuable not just to the media and information sectors but to all communities and businesses alike interested in how to communicate in the radically changing information ecosystem. I find that earnestness resonates, it piques people’s curiosity, and they are much more willing to go on the journey with you.”