ACC board chair confirmed as minister pushes ‘turnaround’ job

Wednesday, 1 October 2025

ACC chief executive Megan Main and new ACC board chair Jan Dawson (right).

New leadership at ACC is being counted on to turn around the challenged Crown agency, which leaves too many New Zealanders “languishing on the scheme, with poor rehabilitation outcomes leaving them worse off”, Minister Scott Simpson said on Wednesday.

Jan Dawson, who was acting board chair, has been confirmed as the new chair with immediate effect.

Simpson said plans for a turnaround of ACC would be announced soon to “set a new direction to restore the scheme to its founding promise - putting clients first and delivering the fast, efficient rehabilitation New Zealanders expect and deserve”.

ACC, which runs the country's accident compensation scheme and is in the middle of responding to a highly critical culture review, in recent years “has fallen short of the standard New Zealanders should expect”, Simpson said.

“Turning this around will require strong leadership and a clear focus on outcomes.”

Dawson has been an ACC board member since mid-2024, and is the chair of Ports of Auckland, the audit, risk, and sustainability Committee at Serko, and the audit and risk committee at Mitre 10.

“Jan brings exactly the kind of leadership needed to drive the turnaround of ACC. She has a proven record of guiding large organisations through periods of change and restoring trust, accountability, and performance,” Simpson said.

The previous board chair, Tracey Batten, resigned in June after six years in the role.

“ACC as an organisation is currently confronting a number of challenging issues, including significant financial challenges and concerns around the overall performance of the organisation,” Simpson said at the time.

In March, ACC announced an independent workplace culture review following a Stuff investigation over concerns regarding two deputy chief executives, poor workplace culture and potential conflicts of interest.

The review found ACC’s strategy was unclear, it had a hierarchical and siloed structure exacerbated by work-from-home policies, while frontline staff were under significant pressure.

There were inconsistent behaviour by leaders and some leadership gaps.

Part of what contributed to that was unclear values, a lack of diversity, restructure “fatigue” and the ongoing morale issues from last year’s restructure.

Last month, an internal email obtained by The Post suggested ACC was considering forcing staff back into the office.

In July, The Post reported that ACC’s financial situation was one of the reasons why a planned roll out of sexual harm prevention programmes was halted.

ACC reported a deficit of $7.2 billion in the year ending June last year, which sent its accumulated deficit — the difference between its savings and its estimate of the future cost of meeting current claims — soaring to $12.4b.

In February, then ACC minister Andrew Bayly said that over the past 10 years, “ACC’s performance has steadily decreased”.

“Costs are up, with levies struggling to keep up. Meanwhile, rehabilitation rates are down, slowing down people’s return to independence following an accident.”