Vishal Rishi

Vishal is the Chair of the Ethnic Health Collective Strategic Group and has been central to its
establishment. He is also the Chair of SAMER+, a pilot project to minimise the rapid rise in family
harm cases seen in communities settled in Manukau. He is a Board member of the Commonwealth
Study Conferences (CSC), New Zealand chapter and a member of the national consumer network led
by the Health Quality & Safety Commission.
Vishal has driven collaborative innovations in Aotearoa for ethnic communities for over 20 years. A
social entrepreneur at heart, he has held various public sector and not-for-profit governance roles.
He was the Former Chair and a Board member of the Roskill Together group, an initiative for
communities/residents of Mt. Roskill supported by the Department of Internal Affairs and a founding
member of the Asian Health Steering and Planning Committee of the East Health Trust (PHO).
Vishal was also selected to be part of a New Zealand delegation of twelve Young Core Leaders of
Civil Society Development Program members in 2012. He also represented New Zealand in the 3rd
Commonwealth Emerging Pacific Leaders Dialogue 2014.
Vishal has extensive experience in public health and health promotion and is currently the Director
of The Asian Network Incorporated (TANI), a well-recognised national service provider improving
health and well-being outcomes for Asians.
As a public health professional, Vishal has made significant contributions to the health sector and is
recognised as a leader who brings an ethnic voice and perspective to the policy table. He has
addressed determinants of health from grassroots health promotion work to leading complex
community responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and recent floods in Auckland. He has strong
relationships with health research centres across NZ and has invested in producing Asian Health
Data and insight reports and building partnerships among community groups and universities to
transform research into practice.