Diversity Works New Zealand Board Deputy Chair Ranjna Patel has been named a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to ethnic communities, health and family violence prevention.
Dame Ranjna, who has served on the Board of Diversity Works New Zealand since 2017, is a multi-award-winning leader and advocate for community wellbeing, whose initiatives have made a lasting impact across New Zealand.
In 2014, she co-founded Gandhi Nivas, an innovative early intervention service supporting men at risk of committing family harm. To date, it has helped more than 6,000 families in Auckland. A five-year study concluded in 2020 showed a 60 percent non-recidivism rate among a cohort of 900 participants. She has consulted on similar services overseas.
Dame Ranjna established Mana 4 Mums in 2019 to support pregnant Māori and Pacific women under the age of 23 in South Auckland. The service has provided holistic, wrap-around care to more than 1,600 women until their children reached 15 months of age. In 2023, she co-founded the Swaminarayan Complex, a multicultural community centre in Auckland promoting connection and offering programmes for seniors, women, and children.
She has held numerous governance roles, including Deputy Chair of Diversity Works New Zealand, Mental Health Foundation Board Member, Executive Trustee of Total Healthcare and NACEW, and Chair of Indian Ink Theatre Company.
She is Patron of New Zealand Police Recruit Wing 330. She co-founded Tāmaki Health in 1977, which has grown to become New Zealand’s largest privately owned primary healthcare group, now serving more than 330,000 patients. Dame Ranjna was the first person of Indian origin to be inducted into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame in 2024 and the first woman to receive the Kiwibank Innovator of the Year award in 2021.
She was named as an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, New Year 2017 and awarded a Queen’s Service Medal, New Year 2009.
