Who’s Your Boss: Incoming mega ministry boss Jeremy Lightfoot

Saturday, 3 May 2025

Jeremy Lightfoot has been appointed secretary and chief executive of the new Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport, from April 27. This story was first published in May 2025.

With upheaval in the public service and a new minister that demands accountability, The Post is asking every public service leader for a 10-minute interview. Journalist Anna Whyte talks leadership and stress with Corrections chief executive Jeremy Lightfoot.

It would be fair to expect the boss of Corrections to be serious and gruff.

Corrections is often in the news and the firing line ‒ the re-imprisonment rate for recidivists is 60%, lists of serious assaults on prison staff are long, often and sobering, and last year a scathing review into the workplace's own culture lambasted it as enabling sexual harassment and assaults.

The buck ‒ holding the country’s most dangerous criminals, the protection of staff in high risk work and ensuring the community is safe ‒ stops with them.

Waiting by his non-assuming standing desk in the corner of an open plan office, Anzac poppy displayed on his blazer, is Corrections chief executive Jeremy Lightfoot. He does not appear serious or gruff ‒ I initially assumed he was another member of staff.

But he’s the man in charge of 10,000 prisoners across 18 prisons, more than 25,000 offenders in the community on sentences or orders, and 9000 Corrections staff.

Lightfoot is an engineer by profession. Growing up in the UK, he started out working in the private sector to deliver infrastructure projects such as schools and hospitals.

“My wife's a Kiwi, we met in London, maybe a not unfamiliar story. I had travelled here on a number of occasions, a real love of the country, and we made a plan to come here,” he tells The Post.

Back then, New Zealand was just starting to dip its toe into structured public-private partnerships. That’s where his first stint at Corrections began ‒ working to deliver the high security men’s prison in Wiri.

He had no idea he would be leading Corrections 10 years later.

“I didn't have a very clear plan,” Lightfoot says.

“As an engineer, I'd been used to working in a reasonably linear way where there was a right or a wrong answer … What I quickly discovered, given the very strong people-based nature of Corrections, is the complexity, but also the real opportunity to make real change and difference.”

Lightfoot, who likes a challenge, was hooked.

On those who shaped his leadership approach, Lightfoot first credits his parents, then the chairman of the organisation he last worked at in the UK.

'You were never left wondering what the good outcome was or what he was expecting you to do.

“He didn't build up to it with a whole range of words, and he didn't finish saying a whole range of words. It was just, ‘this is what I want’. You could still question him seeking further clarification, but that clarity was probably the most significant thing for me.”

On leading Corrections staff, he says it’s about understanding that there is no one simple answer.

“You've got to listen to them, you've got to be interested, you've got to be curious, and you've got to have real focus on their safety and making sure their voice is always heard. But that's taken me quite a while to develop into.

“There will always be stuff going on every day in one way, shape or form, much of it dangerous and concerning, particularly in the prison context, and the staff do an amazing job every day in keeping people safe … as well as being able to take a longer term view of some of the things that we don't have today that we will need into the future.”

As a leader, Lightfoot says it is important to create a team environment where people feel able to say they don't understand or they're not sure, and where constructive conflict can happen.

“Those things sound really straightforward and easy, but actually in a team dynamic, having a different view, saying you're not sure, saying I don't understand, that can, and I've experienced it, be pretty confronting, and you might worry that that will undermine your capability within a team, or how you're viewed.”

Asked how he deals with the stress, Lightfoot doesn’t try skirt round it.

“My wife's a fabulous support for me back at home … having a having a stable environment to be able to lean on from time to time, and I'm conscious I probably do that a bit too much sometimes.”

Lightfoot also hits the CrossFit gym at 5.30am or 6.30am, three mornings a week.

“I often say, if I can get through that hour of the day, anything else is easy for the rest of the day.

“I really love exercise and I know the value for me of maintaining a really disciplined approach to exercise being a helpful part of me managing the day-to-day stresses of life.

“It just clears my head, ensures that I'm ready to go for the day.”

His piece of advice to public servants: “Being aware of how you impact on others, is a really important attribute of being a good leader.

“I don't think that's a sign of weakness, I think that's a sign of huge strength. That then generates a culture that creates an environment where people feel able to speak their truth and feel that they're being heard.”