Jennifer Tupou: The Fono's head of finance gets top honours

Award-winning financial leader Jennifer Tupou says her recognition at the 2025 New Zealand CFO Awards celebrates Pacific strength, purpose, and service.

Earlier this month, Tupou received the Finance Leader - Growth Entity Award at a ceremony at Auckland’s Cordis Hotel. She is the Chief Financial Officer and Director of Corporate Services at The Fono, a Pacific health, education, and social services provider with more than 200 staff across Auckland.

Speaking with John Pulu on PMN Tonga, Tupou says the award holds special meaning for her as a Pacific leader.

“It’s really wonderful to have been recognised. This is an award recognising financial leadership and performance, and innovation across the country,” she says. “To be able to be a part of this and to bring the Fono and Pacific with me into the space of corporates and professionals and to show them what Pacific excellence really means, I’m incredibly proud of that.”

The Fono expressed its “immense pride” in Tupou’s achievement through a social media post: “May God continue to bless and strengthen you, Jennifer, as you continue to do His work in support of the many families in our care.”

Tupou finds her greatest fulfilment in helping others grow. “I’m all about unlocking whatever it is that’s blocking the growth and allowing them to flourish into their full potential. It’s been amazing to see.”

Beyond the balance sheet

When she joined The Fono four years ago, Tupou started a cultural reset for the entire team, identifying bottlenecks and aligning financial insights with the organisation’s long-term goals.

Under her leadership, four healthcare facilities were upgraded, outdated systems were replaced, and processes were automated and streamlined to improve efficiency.

Patients can now enrol online 24/7, reducing processing time by 75 per cent, wait times reduced by 46 per cent, and increasing billing by a third.

Jennifer Tupou celebrates the win with family and the Finance and Corporate Services team from The Fono Trust. Photo/Facebook/The Fono

Since Tupou took charge, The Fono has seen a 20 per cent increase in income, a 56 per cent rise in capital investment, a 41 per cent improvement in cash flow, and a 30 per cent expansion of its workforce.

“My team look after IT, HR, health and safety, quality assurance, marketing, comms and engagement, finance, and anything that requires enablement of the frontline services,” she says.

“The resources that we get, or whatever it is that the frontliners need to enable them to work, I’ve got to make sure to allocate that effectively and efficiently, ensuring that we are financially sustainable, and at the same time, making sure that we aspire to grow.”

The human aspect was equally important. Staff turnover decreased, team members bought their first homes, advanced their careers, and vulnerable patients received faster support, including help for a solo mother who avoided eviction within four days.

Tupou says her role extends beyond financial management. “Finance is usually regarded as back office, you just stay within the office, behind the screen and look after the books. But what really gets underestimated [is] that in finance, you get to see everything. It’s the way you use that information, that privilege, to be able to enable growth or to drive change and impact within an organisation.”

Watch Jennifer Tupou's full interview below.

From family business to CFO

Reflecting on her career, Tupou says her upbringing in a matriarchal family business helped shape her work ethic. “My father had to leave school at 16 to help her run the business, and so I was always working.

“You’re always doing errands, doing stock counts, you’re helping at the cashier’s, at reception. That has always been my journey.”

After studying business and commercial law, she began her career with Audit New Zealand, became a chartered accountant in 2005, and later worked in Tonga before returning to Auckland and joining The Fono.

Tupou believes Pacific professionals bring unique strengths to organisations in New Zealand. “If we have really well-crafted Pacific people with well-crafted disciplines spread across the organisations in New Zealand, we can enrich those organisations.

“We’ll be a pillar of strength for when times are really tough… and if we’re effective in our discipline, we can really enrich that culture within those organisations,” she says. “We can push the economy forward, and I think we would do really well.”