Hélène Malandain

Hélène has been serving as the Chair of SEWF since 2019. Hélène runs Pocketknife, a New Zealand-based advisory firm that works with people and organisations who navigate change towards better futures. She has recently relocated to France, her home country.

Hélène has been working in the social impact and social innovation space for over 10 years. Her journey started with a focus on growing social enterprise in Aotearoa New Zealand as a vehicle towards economic transformation, and has since expanded to many sectors and pockets of the economy.

Her work currently ranges from advising grassroots community-led networks on multi-year behaviour change programmes, to co-designing change strategies for NFPs, advising local government on New Economy frameworks, and working with researchers on the topic of ethical leadership.

Hélène enjoys working across multiple scales: from global and multicultural environments to local and place-based contexts. She’s used to working on the ground, or around the Board table. She is curious about models, innovative frameworks and philosophies that can inform the redesign of our systems towards a new economy. She is committed to continuous learning, to growing her toolbox and her practice, and to keep expanding her horizons – and those of others’ through collaboration.