Our people
Meet the members of the Dame Mira Szászy Centre and read about their research interests.
Manutaki – Centre Director
Professor Jason Paul Mika
Professor of Māori Management, Department of Management & International Business. Associate Dean Māori, University of Auckland Business School. Director, Dame Mira Szászy Centre. Director, Māori Development Programme, Graduate School of Management Adjunct Professor, Waikato Management School.
Jason was born in Whakatāne and raised in Rotorua. He is a kaupapa Māori business researcher whose research, writing, teaching, and practice centres on Māori and indigenous business philosophy and practice in multiple sites and sectors. He has also held senior scholarly positions at Stanford University’s Woods Institute for the Environment and the University of Arizona’s Native Nations Institute. Jason is co-chair of the Academy of Management's Indigenous Caucus and co-convenor of the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management's (ANZAM) Indigenous Management Special Interest Group. His research draws attention to the role of indigenous knowledge in achieving wellbeing, human potential, and relational balance in indigenous economies and enterprise. He is a lead researcher on Tauhokohoko, a five-year endeavour funded research project studying indigenous trade. Prior to joining He Manga Tauhokohoko in November 2024, he was a Professor of Māori Business and Associate Dean Māori at Waikato Management School where he retains a role as an adjunct professor. His focus is growing the next generation of Māori and Indigenous business scholars.
Contact details:
Email: jason.mika@auckland.ac.nz Phone +64 21 970 421
Address:
He Manga Tauhokohoko, University of Auckland Business School
Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland
Level 6, Room 641
Sir Owen G Glenn Building
12 Grafton Road
Auckland
Centre Staff
Dr Daysha Tonumaipe'a
Dr Daysha Tonumaipe’a (Te Arawa, Tainui, Taranaki, Ngāti Hine; Cook Islands Māori/Aitutaki – Amuri) is a researcher and strategist working at the intersection of Indigenous knowledge systems, health equity, and organisational change.
In December 2025, Daysha joined Dame Mira Szászy Centre at the University of Auckland Business School as a postdoctoral research fellow working on Tauhokohoko, a 5-year Endeavour-funded research programme on Indigenous trade alongside Dame Mira centre co-director Professor Jason Mika, and doctoral students Suz Hepi and Xiaoliang Niu.
Daysha completed her PhD at AUT in 2025 on how social enterprises are shaping healthy food environments for Māori and Pacific communities in Tāmaki Makaurau with supervisors Professor Ella Henry and Dr Radilaite Cammock.
Daysha was a key author of the Pacific Research Guidelines at AUT, contributing to the development of culturally grounded, ethical, and relational approaches for Pacific research across the university. Her work spans gynaecological cancer care pathways, children's immunisation, domestic violence, food sovereignty, and organisational cultural capability.
She also served on the WIPCE (World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education) Academic Board, 2025. Daysha is also on the Editorial Board for The Sage Encyclopedia of Indigenous Business and Management. Daysha brings expertise in Indigenous-led evaluation, policy design, cultural capability, and organisational accountability through Te Tiriti o Waitangi and Moana frameworks.
Ngā Ahorangi – Our Professors
Professor Dr Maree Roche
Former Centre Director, Professor Dr Maree Roche has an extensive career in research in areas such as leadership, employee wellbeing and engagement, and is particularly focused on indigenous, specifically Māori leadership and employee wellbeing, where she draws on a Māori/kaupapa perspective. Through her research, Dr Roche continues to inform international and national audiences of the value of properly understanding and resourcing the leaders and employees in today’s complex and changing business environments. She has also been awarded: Fellowship - Positive Organisational Behaviour Institute (USA) Fellowship - New Zealand Psychological Society and is a chartered member of Human Resource Management Institute of New Zealand Institute (Chartered).
Professor Dr Carla Houkamau
Professor Dr Carla Houkamau, Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tahu and Pākehā, from the Department of Management and International Business, was Manutaki for the centre from 2018 - 2021.
Dr Houkamau brought to the centre her focus on intergroup relations, chiefly how group memberships influence attitudes and behaviour. Her publications typically examine how ethnicity helps reproduce socio-economic inequalities but can be leveraged to address them.
Dr Houkamau is also known for the development of the Multidimensional Model of Māori Identity and Cultural Engagement (MMM-ICE) and this research has been recognised nationally and internationally for advancing ethnic identity research using psychometric measures and large samples.
She is currently leading a nationwide longitudinal quantitative study on Māori financial attitudes, Te Rangahau o Te Tuakiri Māori me Ngā Waiaro ā-Pūtea | The Māori Identity and Financial Attitudes Study (MIFAS).
Dr Houkamau completed her term as Manutaki to take up the Deputy Dean’s role for the University of Auckland Business School in 2021.
Read more about Professor Dr Carla Houkamau and her research
Associate Professor Dr Rachel Maunganui Wolfgramm
Associate Professor Dr Rachel Maunganui Wolfgramm, Te Aupōuri, Ngai Takoto, Whakatōhea, Tongan and Irish, was the Manutaki for the Centre from 2021–2023.
As Manutaki, Rachel initiated and led the Matakerepō programme for Māori and Pacific postgraduates, MBA, and doctoral students, initiated and led the Te Waka Taua Kahui Rangatira PhD and postgraduate cohort, served on the Aotearoa Māori Business Leaders Awards steering group and co-chaired the University of Auckland Ngā Ara Whetū Centre for Climate, Biodiversity and Society, a flagship cross-faculty research centre to respond to the pressing environmental and humanitarian challenges of our time. Rachel also worked with talented colleagues, local and international, on multiple leadership projects, publishing practice-based and scholarly literature. Read more about Associate Professor Dr Rachel Wolfgramm and her research
In March 2023, Dr Wolfgramm reduced her workload at Waipapa Taumata Rau to undertake a commission from the Waitangi Tribunal, Ministry of Justice. Rachel was invited to lead an Historical Overview Report on the impacts of Crown legislation, policy and practices on the Rangatiratanga, status and roles of Wāhine Māori c.1840 to 1950. This was part of a research programme undertaken for the Mana Wāhine Kaupapa Inquiry, WAI 2700. The Historical Overview report is now available on the Waitangi Tribunal Website.
Title: Mana Wāhine Māori i Ngā Wā o Mua, The impacts of Crown legislation, policy and practices on the rangatiratanga, status and roles of wāhine Māori c.1840-1950
Author: Associate Professor Rachel Maunganui Wolfgramm (Lead Author)
Dr Zheng Lei
Dr. Zheng Lei is a Professor at the School of International Economics and Trade, Dongbei University of Finance and Economics (DUFE), where she also serves as Director of the International Business Teaching Section. She is currently a visiting scholar at the University of Auckland Business School, hosted by Professor Antje Fiedler and Professor Jason Mika at the Dame Mira Szászy Centre. Her research, teaching and practice centre on international business, foreign direct investment, and the internationalization strategies of multinational corporations from emerging economies. Her work systematically investigates how firm-level and institutional factors shape corporate performance in cross-border expansions. She has led a National Social Science Foundation project examining the performance consequences of internationalization for emerging-market multinationals, and her research has since extended to CEO social status in M&A, distinguishing between ascribed and achieved status, and more recently, to investment resilience in multinational operations. At the Dame Mira Szászy Centre, she is particularly interested in the theoretical dialogue between her empirical work on multinational networks, investment resilience, and CEO social status, and the centre’s scholarly focus on indigenous enterprise and Māori economic development. She sees potential to explore whether concepts such as relational networks, long-term resilience, and mana can enrich international business theory, and to test these ideas using her existing datasets on Chinese listed firms and comparative global data. She looks forward to learning from colleagues at the Centre and contributing to shared conversations on enterprise, resilience, and economic development.
Ngā Kairangahau Matua – Our Senior Researchers
Dr Nimbus Staniland
Dr Nimbus Staniland, Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Tūhoe, is a Senior Lecturer in Management at the University of Auckland Business School with over 10 years’ experience in tertiary education. Her research is focused on the question of how Māori and other Indigenous research methodologies can be effectively applied to the workplace experience and the organisation of work, what practices and processes enable or inhibit meaningful experiences of employment and careers, and how might we use theoretical frameworks that are particular to this country to develop new theories and approaches to practice in business.
Dr Amber Nicholson
Dr Amber Nicholson is an uri o Ngāruahine and a māmā of two. She has been affiliated with the centre since 2009 in both professional and academic capacities. Amber has been involved in various research projects in the areas of Treaty of Waitangi claims, Māori health disparities, Māori governance, Māori history, child poverty, and Economies of Mana. She completed her PhD in 2021, exploring ways to enhance Māori wellbeing through recognising and honouring the ancestral landscapes in which business operates. Amber has research interests in Māori concepts of wellbeing, economies of mana and kaitiakitanga.
Te Kaihanga Rangahau - Research Associates
Dr Jamie Newth
Dr Jamie Newth, Ngāpuhi is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Auckland and CEO of Soul Capital. His interests are in social enterprise, impact investing, sustainable business, social innovation, and social entrepreneurship.
Abigail McClutchie
Abigail McClutchie is of Te Rarawa and Ngāti Porou descent and lives in the CBD in Tāmaki Makaurau. She is one of the Kaiārahi in the Lead Team of Student and Scholarly Services at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland.
Abigail is also studying a PhD at the University of Auckland Business School, enquiring into ‘mahi rangatira’ and 'utu' in the entrepreneurial context, past and present. Her work and studies progress and empower tauira me kaimahi Māori to embed Te Tiriti o Waitangi in all we do, and to realise tino rangatiratanga (Māori self-determination, independence, sovereignty, mana motuhake).
Dr Robert Pouwhare
Ngā Tohunga PhD – Our PhD scholars
Robina Bedwell
Robina is a PhD candidate in Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Auckland Business School. Her research explores how supplier diversity initiatives can support Māori entrepreneurial development and improve socio-economic outcomes for Māori communities.
Her work is grounded in kaupapa Māori values and focuses on relational procurement, intergenerational wellbeing, and mana-enhancing approaches to economic inclusion. Robina holds a Master of Māori and Indigenous Leadership (with Distinction) from the University of Canterbury and is committed to Indigenous-led approaches that elevate Māori voices in business and research.
She has a background in adult education and natural health science, with over two decades of experience in roles across both the education and wellness sectors.
Suzanne Hepi
Suzanne Hepi (Ngāti Whitikaupeka, Waikato-Tainui, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāpuhi, Te Kapotai, Ngāti Pāhauwera, Ngāi Tukairangi, Ngāti Rahiri) was born in the Rangitīkei and raised in Waiouru growing up in the hospitality business owned and operated by her parents. She and her partner, Liam Reedy, run their own consultancy business while raising their five children. Suzanne is currently pursuing a PhD in Management and International Business at the University of Auckland Business School with supervisors Professor Jason Paul Mika, Dr Kiri Dell and Professor Anna Strutt of Waikato Management School. She also holds a Master of Business Studies from Massey University and a Postgraduate Certificate in Commerce from Lincoln University. Suzanne is a two-time recipient of the Te Hononga-ā-Kiwa scholarship, which supports Māori business engagement, capability, and awareness on the international stage. Through this opportunity, she travelled to Vietnam and Taiwan to explore global trade and Indigenous business connections. Suzanne serves as a hapū delegate for Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Whitikaupeka, where she plays an active role in governance and the development of environmental initiatives.
Xiaoliang Niu
Xiaoliang is of Han Chinese ethnicity, born and raised in Yangxin County, China. After completing high school, Xiaoliang moved to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2010.
Xiaoliang is a doctoral candidate of the University of Auckland Business School within the Department of Management and International Business, working with supervisors Professor Jason Paul Mika, Dr Amber Nicholson, and Associate Professor Paresha Sinha of Waikato Management School. Xiaoliang’s doctoral research explores how different world views, including cultural values and knowledge systems, particularly Chinese and te ao Māori, influence perspectives on environmental sustainability in business.
Beyond his doctoral research, Xiaoliang has been involved in research projects focused on Indigenous business management, entrepreneurship, trade, cross-cultural management, and sustainability management. Recent publications include an award winning ANZAM case study on The Southern Initiative published in JMO and a book chapter on whānau enterprise and Māori economies of wellbeing.
Ngāroimata Reid
Ngāroimata Reid is from Te Rarawa, Ngātiwai, Ngāti Kahungunu and Rangitane - Te Tau Ihu o te Waka a Maui. She was awarded the Dame Mira Szászy Māori Business Leaders Alumni Award for Excellence in Māori Business and Leadership; is a Leadership New Zealand Fellow and holds an international membership with the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID).
Ngāroimata is a former member of the Academic Advisory Council, International Indigenous Women’s Forum (IIWF/FIMI) representing the Te Atatū Branch Māori Women’s Welfare League at Indigenous Women’s Global Leadership School, the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and at Columbia University in New York City.
Ngāroimata’s PhD research is focused on the Leadership Resilience, Identity and Efficacy of Wāhine Māori.
Manuhiri Huatahi
Manuhiri Huatahi is a Kaiārahi for Student and Scholarly Services at Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland. She is also a PhD scholar in Management and International Business at the University of Auckland Business School and is an active member of the Ngā Taniwha Māori Alumni Network and Te Rōpū Whakahau.
Manuhiri’s PhD research focuses on The Evolution of Libraries in Meeting the Needs of Māori.
Read more about Manuhiri Huatahi
Kairangahau Tohu Paerua – Masters Research Students
Georgina O'Connor
Georgina O’Connor (Te Māhurehure) is a Māori astronomer from Waima, Hokianga. She is Kaiārahi Pūrau at Ngā Kura ā Iwi, where she leads the development and delivery of innovative NCEA Pūrau (STEM) programmes for rangatahi from Māori medium kura across Aotearoa. Her wānanga in kōkōrangi Māori is grounded in the kōrero tuku iho of her tūpuna Nukutawhiti, as handed down to her by her uncle Rereata Makiha.
Her current project is an initiative that seeks to establish an Indigenous-led Dark Sky Reserve across the Hauraki Plains, creating a globally competitive astrotourism industry grounded in Māori innovation, sustainability, and iwi partnership.
Ngā Kaitohutohu Matua - Our Senior Advisers
Hone Thorpe
Hone Arohaina Te Topa Thorpe, Te Āti Awa was appointed as the Auckland Business School Kaiārahi on 1 August 2022. He works closely with the Executive Team and Business School to support the Te Taumata Teitei aspirations at Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland.