Charlotte Perry

Charlotte began her career as a primary school teacher before moving into learning and development and then broader People & Culture leadership across retail, banking, technology and founder-led businesses. As National HR Manager for Luxottica New Zealand, she was part of the leadership team that helped turn OPSM from a $2 million loss to a $500,000 profit in nine months. She later spent five years at ASB before joining Medtech Global as its first dedicated People & Culture leader, helping build the organisational foundations to support its growth and eventual sale. Charlotte then moved into the startup world with Basis, gaining firsthand experience of the pace, ambiguity and commercial pressure of a founder-led business. She also helped translate the CEO co-founder’s AI-first vision into everyday ways of working across the organisation. Across each environment, she has developed a strong understanding of how leadership, organisational decisions and people performance come together to shape business outcomes.

Charlotte is known for quickly understanding what is getting in the way of a business performing at its best, then turning that insight into practical action. She works comfortably beyond a traditional people remit, connecting business strategy with organisational design, workforce priorities, leadership capability and operating rhythms. She is particularly good at working alongside founders and CEOs, taking big-picture thinking and translating it into something the organisation can execute.

Charlotte is proud of being part of the OPSM turnaround and of the impact she had at Medtech Global, where she built core people systems and practices while also leading operational work that reduced business risk ahead of the company’s sale. One of her strongest measures of success came after the sale, when board members who had initially questioned the investment in people and culture recognised the value her work had created.

Charlotte cares deeply about people’s experience at work, while believing that good people and culture work should make the organisation perform better. For her, the goal is to create an environment where people can do great work, where their purpose and values are aligned with the organisation, and where better performance can sit alongside a good working life.

Charlotte is pragmatic, commercially focused and action oriented. She looks for opportunities to create value quickly, brings clarity to complex situations and builds trusted relationships with senior leaders quickly. Her style is direct and caring. For CEOs, she often becomes a trusted partner and sounding board, someone who can challenge their thinking, help make sense of what is happening across the organisation and turn ambition into action.