tui te hau

The start-up community is the grassroots of innovation in any city and Tui has been involved in Wellington’s innovation eco-system for over 15 years. Over the last two years, she has been leading Mahuki – Te Papa’s innovation accelerator.  Mahuki is focused on culture-tech where culture, business and innovation intersect.   Her background includes working for NZTE where she headed up the Maori Enterprise Team supporting major primary exporters into offshore markets. She went on to be New Zealand Trade Commissioner based in Melbourne and on her return to New Zealand headed up NZTE’s exporter education programme. Tui then spent over a decade working with start-ups and headed up Wellington’s Fashion HQ business incubator and was the former Chief Executive of Creative HQ. Tui spearheaded the establishment of the Lightning Lab, New Zealand’s business acceleration programme. Tui lives in Brooklyn, Wellington with her basketball crazy son and three legged cat.  She is partial to ginger kisses and loves watching home renovation shows.​