Hannah McQueen is a proven industry-disruptor who has already built a successful alternative to an entrenched system.
Her journey began with a deeply personal goal: escaping mortgage debt. What followed was the creation of a nationwide financial coaching movement, Enable Me, that helped thousands of New Zealanders take control of their money, reduce stress, and change the trajectory of their lives.
In doing so, McQueen challenged long-held assumptions about debt, financial literacy, and who financial advice was really for. She didn’t just educate. She changed behaviour, culture, and outcomes. Today, she’s recognised as a media commentator, speaker, author and leading voice on personal finance.
That same entrepreneurial fire, strategic rigour and refusal to accept “this is just how it’s done” now sit at the heart of Brightly.
Brightly is an evidence-led, whole-of-person health service that brings together a multidisciplinary team of clinicians with coordinated, personalised health pathways designed specifically for older adults
McQueen’s leadership resonates because it is grounded in real life.
She is a mum, a wife, and a daughter of ageing parents. She lives the tensions many families feel: balancing work, caregiving, health, finances and future planning. This relatability allows her to translate complex issues into clear, actionable conversations without fear-mongering or jargon.
She asks the tough questions others avoid, while remaining deeply human in her approach.
“Ageing is complex. Risks overlap and compound. A fall is rarely just about balance. Cognitive change is rarely just about memory. Declining independence is rarely just about age,” she said.
McQueen has instilled a systems mindset at Brightly. She has an ability to see how domains connect, where gaps exist, and how fragmented services can be redesigned into something coherent, preventative and human-centred. It is the same lens she applied to financial coaching, now scaled to the complexity of ageing well.
The ageing well crisis is accelerating. Demographics are shifting faster than systems can adapt. Waiting for incremental change is no longer an option.
“What is needed now is leadership that can make ageing and health information easier to understand and act on, help families plan earlier and not just react in a crisis, connect the dots between health, home, finances and independence, and give people the confidence, clarity and hope about growing older.”
McQueen has brought together entrepreneurial success, lived experience, strategic vision and authentic connection. She has already shown she can disrupt entrenched systems and deliver transformation at scale.
She said the ageing crisis needs a leader from outside the sector who can tackle the challenges from a first principles basis of what people want, can relate to and adopt in a sustainable way.
“Most people don’t want endless appointments or complex medical plans. Most want to slow decline, and want clarity: Our research shows people want to know what’s changing in my health, what does it mean, and what should I focus on right now? Brightly gives you that clarity, and the confidence that comes with it, together with ongoing guidance as your needs change over time”
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