Finding A Career With Purpose (EP30 with Michelle Impey, Save the Kiwi)

For many careers, purpose doesn’t extend much beyond cashing in the payslip.

For Michelle Impey, she’s lived a career of purpose for 20+ years.

As CEO of Save the Kiwi, Michelle has led the organisation’s evolution from a one-person funding distributor to a national team delivering measurable conservation outcomes for our national icon, the kiwi bird.

In this episode, we talk candidly about building a career with purpose - the trade-offs and rewards, the culture that keeps people for decades, and how business skills like fundraising, operations and communications can drive real impact alongside fieldwork. You don’t necessarily need an ecology degree to help; you need intent, passion and persistence.

Michelle also outlines the NZ conservation sector’s evolution. From early research into kiwi decline and DoC sanctuaries, to  ...