Te Aorangi Murphy-Fell

From kaupapa to commerce: a journey of Māori leadership

For business trailblazer Te Aorangi Murphy-Fell (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Apa), leadership and service have always gone hand in hand.

Guided by a deep sense of purpose, the Waikato graduate is part of a new generation of young Māori leaders shaping the future of business and community in Aotearoa.

“I was home schooled from the age of five and grew up speaking Te Reo Māori, so I’ve been immersed in a tikanga Māori environment my whole life,” he explains.

His parents run a Māori professional services firm in Whakatāne, and while still at school, he was already helping to manage the company’s website – an early sign of his entrepreneurial drive.

Fascinated by how money could grow over time through sound decisions, Te Aorangi began investing in shares as a hobby at just 14 – later using his earnings to purchase his first home.

An education blending tikanga with business insight

With a growing interest in business, at 18 Te Aorangi enrolled at the University of Waikato to study a Bachelor of Management Studies with Honours (now called a Bachelor of Business with Honours), majoring in Finance with minors in Strategic Management and Te Reo Māori.

“I knew Waikato had a great reputation for caring about tikanga Māori and supporting Māori students, so that was a big pull for me,” he says.

“The Management School also had a great reputation. The BMS(Hons) provided a broad learning experience, covering a wide range of topics and two work-based internships. It’s theory-based at first, but then you get into the practical, real-world stuff later on.”

He valued the degree’s emphasis on collaboration through group assignments, learning from classmates with diverse backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives. “The University of Waikato is a place of exceptional diversity of thought.”

During his studies, Te Aorangi seized every opportunity – reaching the finals of the Waikato Management School Case Competition 2018, and taking part in the SDS National Business Case Competition, the Global Innovation & Enterpreneurship Challenge, and the CFA Institute Research Challenge.

For his Finance major, he completed a summer internship with ASB’s global markets team in Auckland, gaining valuable insights into foreign exchange and interest rate trading.

Lifting Māori voices and creating impact

Since graduating in 2019, Te Aorangi has channelled his skills and passion into his role as kaiwhakahaere (managing director) for his family’s consultancy, Haemata, which partners with government agencies and the private sector to deliver initiatives in Māori education, language, capacity-building, and more.

“Working in our whānau business allows me to continue the kaupapa my parents started — supporting Māori organisations and communities to flourish. I’d like to contribute to the revitalisation of te reo Māori and the growth of the Māori economy, which is set to get even bigger in the future.”

Beyond his day job, Te Aorangi is the youngest person ever to become a Chartered Member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors (CMInstD), and he sees governance as a powerful way to give young Māori leaders a voice at the decision-making table.

At just 24, he was appointed a trustee and later Deputy Chair of BayTrust, overseeing a $250 million fund that supports meaningful change across the Bay of Plenty community and environment. He also serves on the board of the Hepatitis Foundation of New Zealand, the advisory group of Generation Kāinga, and is an Associate at the Centre for Social Impact New Zealand.

A licensed translator and interpretor, in 2023 Te Aorangi completed a Master of Māori Language Excellence at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa, and the following year co-authored his first book with Dr Hona Black, Ngā Hapa Reo: Common Māori Language Errors.

More recently in November 2025, he teamed up with other writers to translate into te reo J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Hare Pota me te Pakohu Kura Huna. 

Whether in business or the boardroom, Te Aorangi is committed to supporting Māori aspirations and making a positive, lasting impact.

“For me, my career and life goals aren’t focused on making money; that’s just a by-product of doing work that’s valuable in its own right.”