Daniel Neho

Profile

I’m a senior digital and communications advisor with more than seven years in the New Zealand public sector, across MSD, Kāinga Ora, the Office of the Ombudsman, HUD and MCERT. I bring digital channels, content and communications together so people can find, understand and trust government information.

My career has moved from content into strategy. At MSD and Kāinga Ora I built content strategies, knowledge bases and governance for websites and intranets. At the Office of the Ombudsman and HUD I led strategic communications and media for high-risk and high-profile announcements, including Budget 2026, advising the Chief Ombudsman and senior leaders and working closely with Ministers’ offices. During the set-up of MCERT I led the website, intranet, social media and brand that launched on 1 July 2026, and I now shape how the Ministry governs and invests in a portfolio of more than 25 websites.

In every role I’ve championed accessibility and plain language, built the processes and governance that make good practice last, and coached the people around me. I’m ready for a principal role: setting digital direction, owning governance and standards, and developing others.

Key strengths

  • Digital channel strategy and governance
  • Website and intranet delivery (Silverstripe, SharePoint)
  • Accessibility, WCAG and the NZ Government Web Standards
  • Content design and plain language
  • Vendor, release and change management
  • Analytics and dashboards (GA4, Google Tag Manager, Power BI)
  • Strategic communications and stakeholder management
  • Coaching and developing others

Current role

Senior Advisor Communications

Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport (MCERT)
July 2026 to present

My role at HUD moved to MCERT when the Ministry was set up on 1 July 2026. I lead digital product management for the Ministry’s websites and provide communications and digital support across the Ministry, including for local government.

Digital channel strategy and governance

  • Co-wrote a proposal for a Digital Channels Transition Project to review, govern and reduce the number of MCERT’s digital channels
  • Developing an interim digital channels approach for MCERT, with a decision framework and investment options
  • Advise on the future of MCERT’s digital channels, including websites, intranets, social media, consultation platforms, newsletters and digital services
  • Contributed to governance, ownership and publishing frameworks, a channel inventory and a future digital operating model
  • Contributed to the intranet work programme, including governance, information architecture, moving content from old intranets and recommending which old platforms to retire
  • Designed an interim release process to make the best use of the quarterly vendor support retainer

Digital product management and delivery

  • Lead digital product management and continuous improvement for mcert.govt.nz, the Community Housing Regulatory Authority website (chra.hud.govt.nz) and hud.govt.nz
  • Responsible for a portfolio of more than 25 government websites, including transport.govt.nz
  • Leading the move of stv.govt.nz into mcert.govt.nz, including its calculator
  • Leading user acceptance testing for the transport.govt.nz upgrade to Silverstripe 6.2
  • Contributed to business cases, statements of work, risk assessments and delivery plans for website and digital service projects

Publishing and accessibility

  • Publish and manage content across the housing, transport, environment and regional development websites, and advise business groups on publishing, document structure and accessibility
  • Provided urgent publishing support so statutory and Cabinet material was published on time
  • Track accessibility across MCERT’s websites using automated scan data, working towards sites with no issues
  • Preparing MCERT’s websites for the new secondary legislation publishing requirements, which start on 2 November 2026

Lake Taupō Harbourmaster team

  • Product owner and project lead: leading the requirements, procurement and delivery of a new boat ramp permit system
  • Redesigning the boat ramp permit
  • Developing the team’s brand, including its logo and brand guidance

Local government

  • Digital lead: moving the Department of Internal Affairs’ (DIA) local government web content into MCERT’s new local government function
  • Provide communications and digital support for local government work, including city and regional deals, the Local Government Commission and local government policy

Communications operations

  • Contributed to discovery for combining the media monitoring services inherited from four agencies, gathering requirements and reviewing supplier contracts, licences and renewals
  • Designed a media enquiries management system in SharePoint and Power Automate
  • Contributed to communications planning and dashboard reporting, and to communications during the Ministry’s set-up

Previous roles

Senior Advisor Communications – Communications and Government Services

Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga – Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
November 2024 to June 2026

I led digital and communications work for the Ministry, gave strategic advice to senior leaders, and led the digital channels needed to set up MCERT.

Setting up MCERT

  • Website lead: delivered mcert.govt.nz (Silverstripe 6) for launch on 1 July 2026, including Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager tracking
  • Intranet lead: delivered the MCERT intranet for launch on 1 July 2026, including the information architecture and moving six SharePoint subsites and about 45 pages of DIA local government content
  • Social media lead: set up MCERT’s Facebook, X and LinkedIn channels, with a social media strategy, setup guides and a channel register
  • Brand lead: led the MCERT brand work
  • Introduced content owners and automatic review reminders across the intranet

Websites and day-to-day digital work

  • Led the redevelopment of the secondary legislation section of hud.govt.nz
  • Managed day-to-day digital work, including the housing dashboards, the delivery dashboard and the homelessness insights report
  • Contributed to digital processes and strategy

Accessibility

  • Improved the accessibility of hud.govt.nz (completed April 2026) and raised awareness of accessibility across HUD
  • Made a formal submission on the proposed NZ Government Digital Accessibility Standard

Communications

  • Budget 2026: communications and digital lead for housing announcements, including pre-Budget announcements
  • Regularly acted as media lead when the communications manager was away, working directly with journalists, subject matter experts and Ministers’ offices
  • Developed and led communications plans for major housing announcements, including the Government Policy Statement on Housing and Urban Development (GPS-HUD), the Housing Investment Plan and Going for Housing Growth
  • Led the cross-agency communications approach for Auckland city centre initiatives
  • Led internal communications while the internal communications role was vacant, including for the Microsoft Copilot rollout

Publications and people

  • Managed production of the annual report, and designed the GPS-HUD and Housing Investment Plan publications
  • Coached and trained a colleague in communications and digital work

Communications Advisor

Office of the Ombudsman
October 2022 to October 2024

I provided communications advice and support to the Chief Ombudsman and the Office.

  • Led strategic communications and media management for the Chief Ombudsman, including high-risk announcements
  • Advised the Chief Ombudsman and senior managers on risk, relationships and external stakeholders
  • Wrote communications and engagement plans, speeches, talking points, Q&As, media releases, web content, social media posts, newsletters and presentations
  • Provided media and social media support at the Chief Ombudsman’s external events
  • Championed plain language and good web content practice across teams in Auckland and Wellington

Analyst – Intranet Content

Kāinga Ora – Homes and Communities
June 2022 to October 2022

Promoted from Communications Advisor (April to June 2022) after proposing a better content design process, including content strategy and governance.

  • Redesigned the SharePoint document library and knowledge base, and planned how to move existing content into them
  • Planned, managed and published all intranet content in SharePoint, and handled content requests from business units
  • Trained staff across the organisation in SharePoint, plain language and the NZ Government Web Standards
  • Managed quality management system review cycles and version control, and reported on usage with recommendations for improvement
  • Mentored technical writers and led a community of practice on content design, plain language and WCAG

Internal Communications Advisor (secondment)

Ministry of Social Development (MSD)
July 2021 to September 2021

  • Coordinated internal communications for MSD’s COVID-19 welfare response, including the COVID-19 Protection Framework
  • Sent a twice-daily email newsletter to all MSD staff during the August 2021 lockdown
  • Planned and developed communications for a restructure across a business group
  • Ran a weekly live online forum with the Acting Deputy Chief Executive, and managed content for four internal digital channels

Online Content Advisor

Ministry of Social Development (MSD)
March 2021 to April 2022

  • Helped create and put in place the content strategy for a new knowledge base, including training, processes, content plans and audits
  • Turned complex technical information into clear, easy-to-find content, working with subject matter experts
  • Published content in TeamSite and Confluence, and created Google Data Studio reports
  • Trained advisors in TeamSite, Confluence and Google Analytics, and contributed to the knowledge management style guide

Web Content Coordinator

Ministry of Social Development (MSD)
June 2019 to March 2021

  • Subject matter expert for the redesign of the SuperGold website and mobile app
  • Wrote, managed and published content for the SuperGold website and the team’s knowledge base
  • Planned and ran a one-day event to launch the new SuperGold website and app
  • Processed SuperGold and Community Services Card applications, and wage subsidy applications during the COVID-19 response

Other roles

  • Website Content Manager and Consultant – New Zealand Uniforms, Wellington (November 2018 to June 2019)
  • Assistant Manager – The Brand Outlet, New Zealand-wide (June 2017 to September 2018)
  • Retail Assistant – The Brand Outlet, Wellington (May 2017)

Certifications

  • Change Management Foundation – APMG
  • Yellow Belt, Lean Six Sigma – Kāinga Ora
  • Web Content Writing – Contented
  • The Fundamentals of Digital Marketing – Google
  • Graphic Design and Web Design packages – Yoobee
  • Automotive Engineering – Whitirea Polytechnic

Referees

Available on request.