#264 From Corporate Career to Purpose-Driven Leadership – Aisha Daji Punga at Toitū Envirocare

Welcoming Aisha Daji Punga, CEO of Toitū, to Purposely.

Aisha is an experienced leader whose career has taken her across industries and sectors, from FMCG and telecommunications to health and wellbeing. She’s led major organisations, including her time as CEO of the Starship Foundation, and now heads Toitū, one of New Zealand’s most recognised names in sustainability and environmental certification. In our conversation, she shares how clarity, connection, and purpose shape her leadership—and why she’s energised by the toughest parts of the job.

Her path to Toitū has been anything but linear. Alongside her executive leadership roles, she also ran her own consultancy. But what ultimately pulled her back into a CEO role was people. “I love being around people. I love being connected. I love teams,” she says. Consulting provided stimulation, but lacked the shared purpose and momentum that come from leading a group with a common mission. Returning to that environment was about aligning “head, heart, and soul”—the combination she says fuels her best work.

That philosophy is clear in how she leads. Progress happens when teams move together. Alignment matters more than hierarchy, and clarity is the means to get there. “You have to be clear to be kind,” she notes—a mantra that underpins how she handles everything from strategy to day-to-day conversations. Feedback from her board reinforces that clarity and decisiveness are already shaping Toitū’s direction.

From her first day, Aisha set out to listen. She spent months in conversation with clients, staff, and industry partners—not just to surface what was working, but to hear the harder truths. Those insights became the basis for resets and pivots, with a willingness to say, “this is where we need to go now.” For her, listening and alignment aren’t delays to action; they are what make action possible.

Sustainability wasn’t her specialist field, but that has never been a barrier. She’s surrounded herself with scientists and subject experts who, she says, “astound and inspire me every day.” Her role isn’t to know everything, but to connect people, scale impact, and make Toitū’s purpose resonate widely. “I don’t need to be an expert,” she says. “I need a certain level of understanding, but I don’t need to be all things to all people.”

What comes through in conversation is a style of leadership that avoids jargon and pretence. She doesn’t claim mastery of every detail; what she offers is authenticity, focus, and a commitment to the purpose at the centre of Toitū’s work. Success, for her, isn’t defined by accolades. It’s found in the energy of her team, the trust of stakeholders, and the impact Toitū can deliver in a rapidly changing world.

Looking ahead, Aisha remains grounded: listen deeply, adapt quickly, and never lose sight of purpose. It’s a simple formula, but one that offers a powerful model of leadership for complex times—clear, connected, and unapologetically purposeful.

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