'When The Mission Finds You' Nicola Coom CEO of Cancer Society NZ

Nicola Coom has just stepped into the role of CEO at the Cancer Society New Zealand, and for her, cancer isn’t an abstract cause—it’s personal.

Her own family’s experiences with the disease, her BRCA1 gene diagnosis, and the life-altering choices she’s made to safeguard her health give her leadership a rare authenticity and urgency.

Every day in New Zealand, 77 people are diagnosed with cancer. Around 10,000 die each year, and access to cancer medicines lags behind most OECD countries. While recent funding has helped, Nicola is pushing for consistent investment and bold action far beyond incremental gains.

Her approach combines lived experience with pragmatic leadership. She wants donor dollars to translate into direct support for families, stronger advocacy at government level, and more investment in local research and clinical trials. At the same time, she’s exploring how technology and innovation, from AI-enabled nutrition planning to gamified health education, can extend the Society’s reach and relevance.

The Cancer Society’s impact is already wide, with services spanning the country and over 7,500 volunteers supporting patients and families. But Nicola sees the need to go further. Her focus is on strengthening community care by tailoring services to the needs of families, amplifying patient voices so they shape health policy, and investing in New Zealand-based research and clinical trials.

The challenges ahead are significant: workforce shortages, underfunded services, inequities in access, and the postcode lottery of treatment outcomes. But Nicola believes New Zealand’s scale and diversity create opportunities for faster, more innovative solutions.

Her urgency is grounded in the personal—her father’s recent diagnosis, her teenage sons, friends still in treatment. Yet she’s determined to balance her role with family life and model the healthy choices she promotes.

Nicola is already meeting ministers, pressing for change, and setting a clear direction for the Cancer Society: keep cancer at the top of the agenda, push harder, and move faster.