Oscar Lyons

That is his gratitude for his mother who, against the odds, set him up for a stellar career while single-handedly raising Oscar and his three brothers.

Oscar, who grew up in Dunedin, graduated in medicine from the University of Auckland. Today, aged 35, he is director of Thrum Leadership, assistant director of Oxford University’s Green Templeton College Health Systems Development Centre and associate editor of BMJ Leader (the British Medical Journal).

As he revealed in an interview in BMJ Leader earlier this year, Oscar’s early years were fraught. His musician parents didn’t have steady incomes and when he was ten the family broke up. His mother, Brigid, escaped with her four sons to Auckland with only the possessions they could carry in a couple of black plastic sacks.

“There was not just economic instability, there was definitely some family instability. It was amazing strength that my mother in particular had to be able to take four children out of a situation like that.”

He says the love and support of his mother – “she always told us we could do whatever we set our minds to” – and of the communities in which he found himself led him to where he now is.

Having grown up with music, he knew how hard it would be to make a career of it. His Rosmini College chemistry teacher diverted him from his plan to study engineering at the University of Auckland to doing medicine instead. In his fifth year he completed the Pūkawakawa Regional-Rural medicine programme before working as a doctor in Hauora Tairāwhiti (Gisborne) and Counties Manukau.

“Working as a researcher, educator and running a business means my job stability is much less than had I stayed a doctor. I have much more flexibility though, and the ability to apply my learning from my doctorate for the benefit of those around me.”

And having worked as a doctor gives him an appreciation for the struggles of healthcare professionals.

“Along with running a business and being a full-time academic, I also never expected to be running international leadership development programmes, nor to be an academic journal editor at my career stage.”

Oscar hasn’t worked clinically for a number of years and misses the feeling of knowing, as a doctor, he had done something worthwhile on a given day.

“Research and running programmes are much longer games.”

His company, Thrum Leadership, was spun out of research he did for a Doctor of Philosophy in healthcare leadership at Oxford University after being awarded a Rhodes Scholarship. He and his colleagues set up Thrum to role model impact-focused, evidence-based leadership development.

Oscar says he wants Thrum to thrive back home as well as in the UK.

“I want to bring the work we have done in the UK back to Aotearoa and to Australia and to support really top-notch evidence-based leadership development across healthcare in my own country.

“I want Thrum to get to the point where it doesn’t rely on me to run and where I can maximise the practical value I bring by focusing on research and improvement and teaching.”

But that won’t be to the exclusion of non-work activities, including music and sports. He is an accomplished jazz singer and bass player and also cycles and rows.

“I definitely want to continue singing and playing bass in bands and making time to go on bike-packing trips and challenging myself physically.”