Heather Henare, the chief executive of Skylight Trust, has announced she will step down from the role on 26 August this year. Skylight is a national leader in preventive and restorative mental health services, supporting children, young people, and their families to cope with trauma, loss, and change.

"Skylight has given me the opportunity to work my passion and develop many of Skylight’s services into an innovative suite of digital resources that have extended our reach and diversity.” said Heather.

Trust Board chair Jim Donovan noted how much Skylight has achieved during Heather's tenure. "Our counselling network and our programmes for young people are highly regarded," he said, "and we have sound clinical and business processes and leadership, overseen by professional governance. With this solid platform in place, Heather thinks this is the right time to hand over to someone new to lead Skylight's next phase of development. Now is the time to increase our national presence. digital services delivery and connectedness with Māori and other ethnic communities.

Jim particularly thanked Heather for her commitment and leadership over the past year. "When Heather joined Skylight at the beginning of 2015, she only intended to stay for five years,” he said, "but she has stayed on for an extra 18 months to lead our successful business continuity response to Covid19, while also negotiating future funding and developing new digital delivery programmes."

The search for Skylight's next chief executive begins next week.

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