{"id":5115,"date":"2026-01-14T15:03:52","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T05:03:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/?p=5115"},"modified":"2026-02-02T15:12:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T05:12:22","slug":"nick-steele-on-being-ce-of-mn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/news\/nick-steele-on-being-ce-of-mn","title":{"rendered":"Nick Steele on being Chief Executive, caring for loved ones, and crunching numbers in the NHS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Steele on being Chief Executive, caring for loved ones, and crunching numbers in the NHS<\/h1>\n
\"Nick

Nick Steele, Chief Executive of Metro North Health.<\/p><\/div>\n

Nick Steele has been a familiar face at Metro North over the past few months, acting as Chief Executive since September 2025 before being formally appointed to the role this week.<\/h4>\n

The English-born leader and self-proclaimed Oasis superfan who cut his teeth in the NHS as an accountant brings with him more than just a penchant for numbers \u2013 but a deeply personal patient-centred perspective that shapes every decision he makes.<\/p>\n

Nick says he\u2019s always been competitive, having achieved the status of Chief Financial Officer in his early 30s. He then set his sight on becoming a Chief Executive of a health service.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Nick\u2019s late wife was battling cancer, and without question he stood back from the chance to pursue this goal to care for her.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s this experience that makes him the Chief Executive he is today, with the patient experience integral to the plans he is making for Metro North\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted a CE role, and I wanted to apply for one four to five years ago but put it on hold to care for my wife when she had cancer, taking a break from work in 2022 to look after her and explore different treatment options,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s this experience that\u2019s made me even more aware that I want to stop doing things that aren\u2019t adding value for our patients and look at innovative ways we can improve the outcomes we get for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Christmas Eve, I also lost my Mum who was unwell, and being able to tell her I was successful in the Chief Executive role before she passed away was very special \u2013 she could not stop smiling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nick says his experiences with losing loved ones to ill health and his interactions with health services during this time has shaped not only his compassion and commitment to patient-improvement and clinician engagement, but how he approaches work.<\/p>\n

He says that work-life balance is a key priority to address for the 30,000 staff employed at Metro North.<\/p>\n

Improving culture, tackling occupational violence, delivering performance improvement via the sustainability plan, going completely digital, rapidly expanding out of hospital care, focussing on improving the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and taking forward Metro North\u2019s components of the Hospital Rescue Plan also top the list of his immediate priorities in the job.<\/p>\n

Setting substantial goals and being transparent about them seems to come naturally to Nick, who is hungry for this next challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m ambitious and have been from early in my career, and I want to drive change and, with the support of clinicians, make changes that will improve the care that we provide every day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know everything, and I want to listen to those around me, to get the staff\u2019s views on better ways we can do things in order to build a longer-term strategic plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside of work, Nick sets himself a personal agenda to try all Brisbane\u2019s best restaurants, enjoy live music any chance he can get, and indulge in a great glass of red.<\/p>\n

We spoke to Nick about everything from what drives him to what band he is seeing next \u2013 join us as we get to know him:<\/p>\n<\/div>

\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nick Steele on being Chief Executive, caring for loved ones, and crunching numbers in the NHS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":5116,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,105],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-metro-north-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5115"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5161,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5115\/revisions\/5161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/stars\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}