There’s been a change of guard at Te Puni Kōkiri. Leith Comer whose 12 years in the top job was unusually long in the modern public service, retired on Friday 30 November.

On Monday 3 December Michelle Hippolite took up her new role as Chief Executive.

Michelle has whakapapa links to Rongowhakaata and Te Aitanga-a-Māhaki through her mum, and Waikato through her dad Tom Moana.

Her parents were part of the urban drift from the country to city and Michelle was actually born in the Hutt Valley; but by school time she was back in Huntly and went to one of the country’s earliest Kura Kaupapa Māori – Rakaumanga. Her secondary schooling was at Queen Victoria School in Auckland.

Michelle is a committed Christian and an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; which may be a clue to why her university days were spent at Brigham Young University in Hawaii.

At Queen Victoria Michelle had shown an interest in economics but at BYU – probably because of her faith – she studied social work and emerged with a Bachelor of Social Work. If you look at her later work patterns it’s possible to see how both have come in handy.

At BYU many of Michelle’s friends met and married Americans and stayed on in Hawaii – but not Michelle. She wanted to come home, so armed with her new degree and aged 21, she headed for Huntly. She was reintroduced to Māori matters by tagging along with her dad Tom Moana to Waitangi Tribunal hui and hearings. There must have been learnings there too, which have come in handy in her future career.

A few months later she headed to Wellington to begin a journey leading to the top job at Te Puni Kōkiri.

Her career path has been a steady progression doing the sorts of things that are ‘griss to the mill’ of the public service.

There have been stints and roles in the Ministries of Youth and Women’s Affairs, the State Services Commission and Social Welfare. Michelle has worked at Te Puni Kōkiri before; for two years she was a Policy Adviser working on Māori language and television policies, and other policies involving housing and health.

She has worked at the Health Funding Authority, and then moved to the executive wing of government spending a short stint in the office of the Associate Minister of Health, before spending an important five years in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, when Helen Clark was Prime Minister.

For the next three years she was in and around treaty settlement work with the Office of Treaty Settlements, and then she joined Te Papa where she has spent the last four years.

Michelle’s role at Te Papa Tongarewa has been at the very top of the management tree. She was acting-CEO for more than a year, following the tragic death of the previous CEO – Dr Sneddon Bennington – in a snow storm on a tramping trip in the Tararuas in July 2009; and while the recruitment and arrival of the new CEO took place.

As Kaihautū her tasks have ranged from raising private capital to support the museum’s work, negotiating and carrying out the repatriation of Māori moko mokai and other remains from overseas, organising exhibitions here and abroad and developing policies for the museum.

So the CEO’s job at Te Puni Kōkiri was not really on her radar, until a number of people came to talk to her about it and suggested she should apply.

For Michelle it’ll be a coming home after her two years in the ministry from 1996 to 1998. She’s looking forward to her return. She’s looking forward to nurturing new Māori talent and working with other CEOs in the public service to advance the work of Te Puni Kōkiri.

Michelle is married with two children. She will go down in history as the first woman to head Te Puni Kōkiri and is one of the youngest, if not the youngest to hold the top job in the government’s principal Māori agency.

They say you should never ask a woman her age. But her CV says she was born in January 1968.