Sustainability, for Angela Meyer, isn’t just about the environment — it’s about nurturing a system where everyone can thrive. She likens it to planting garlic on the longest night and harvesting it on the longest day, a slow, deliberate cycle of care and patience. “It’s about trusting in slow work,” Angela says, “preparing the beds, nurturing the soil, watching steady growth long before you see results.”

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As Co-founder and Director of Hi Money and Project Gender, Angela’s mission is clear: fund women properly. She challenges the status quo where women are expected to volunteer their way toward systemic change. “If you’re in a position to fund or resource gender equity work — do it,” she urges. “Stop expecting women to do it on their own.”

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Her journey is shaped by resilience and pacing, lessons learned while sailing across oceans with her young family — wave by wave, hour by hour, progress comes. Angela knows this muscle is essential, especially when confronting the leaky pipeline and persistent pay gaps in finance. The sector wasn’t built with women in mind, and it shows in who holds power and capital.

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Angela draws strength from Indigenous wisdom: wealth isn’t just what you own, it’s who you’re connected to. Relationships with people, land, and whakapapa are at the heart of sustainability — a reciprocal cycle rather than an extractive one. This view fuels her vision for a future where women hold, grow, and feel good about money on their own terms.

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When it comes to engaging stakeholders on ESG, Angela starts with stories. “Numbers get attention, but stories move people,” she says. Bringing feminist business principles — transparency, reciprocity, collective care, shared power — offers a blueprint for transformative change, not just performative gestures.

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Her advice to rising change-makers? “You can’t challenge a system if you’re broke, tired, or burnt out. Build your financial stability, find your people, and protect your energy like it’s your most precious resource — because it is.”

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Angela’s seed of change is simple but powerful: that women can build confident, shame-free relationships with money, transforming not just their lives, but the whole system around them.

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Read her answers to Blooming Sustainability to discover more of Angela’s inspiring vision and practical insights.

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BLOOMING  Sustainability Questionnaire

Name: Angela Meyer

Company & Title: Co-founder and director of Hi Money and Project Gender

Website & LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-meyer-378b321a/

www.himoney.nz

www.projectgender.nz

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​* Guiding Values | Kaupapa 

If sustainability were a flower blooming in your life, what would it look like? What nurtures it?  

Garlic! There’s something deeply witchy and powerful about planting garlic on the longest night and harvesting it on the longest day. For the last 9 years my husband and I have hand planted a commercial crop of elephant garlic on my mothers farm in the Manawatu.   It has taught me patience,  connects me to the rhythm of the seasons, and reminds me to trust in slow work. Sustainability, for me, is about that cycle: preparing the beds with care, nurturing the soil, watching the steady growth long before you see results. What nurtures this in me is connection to the land, the people I grow alongside, and the joy of knowing that sometimes the most powerful things take their time. The days spent in the fields are deeply rewarding - a welcome departure from working in finance and advocacy!

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A quote, personal motto or whakataukī that reflects your vision:  

• The stories do the deep work.  Being curious, sharing stories and metaphors connect me to others, helps me make sense of things that happen and they help me remember what matters.

• Don’t ask, don’t get.  Sometimes you have to ask for what you need, even if it’s uncomfortable.

• Don’t let the bastard get you down. (There’s a lot working against you when you’re doing gender equity work. This was one of my Dad’s favourite sayings - it is my reminder to keep going.)

• Five minutes till showtime, Miss Piggy. I have been a performer for most of my life, I love the process of creating, collaborating and the discipline of being ready to deliver on time. Plus, you know immediately if the audience is with you or not!

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If you could mentor a rising change-maker in Aotearoa, what advice would you share?  

You can’t challenge a system if you’re broke, tired, or burnt out. Sustainability has to start with you. Build your financial stability, find your people, and protect your energy like it’s your most precious resource – because it is. We lose too many good people to exhaustion. That said,  I need to take my own advice on this one.

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* Leading Change | Arataki

A key moment in your journey that shaped your path:  

Sailing across the Caribbean and Pacific ocean with a one-year-old taught me about resilience and pacing. You can face a huge, overwhelming thing and still make progress if you take it hour by hour, wave by wave. It’s a muscle I’ve built ever since – knowing that I don’t need the whole map. I just need to keep moving.

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What’s the main challenge you face in driving sustainability within your sector?  

Gender equity in finance. The system wasn’t built with women in mind, and it shows up in who has power, who has capital, and who gets to make decisions. We talk a lot about diversity, but the pipeline is leaky, the pay gaps persist, and women are still expected to fix things without being properly resourced. There’s still so much to do. Pay equity, anyone?

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An area you need more support with:  

Getting more money into the hands of more women is my mission.  It is hard because a lot of the women I work with are the most financially excluded. They’re not the ones buying the workshops or hiring consultants, but they’re the ones who need it most. We need better ways to fund this work so it’s accessible. Hit me up if you want to sponsor women and please buy our Hi Money book when it comes out next year. It is a feminist guide to making friends with money.

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An Indigenous perspective you admire and want people to be mindful of:  

Many cultures, including Te Ao Māori teach me that wealth isn’t just what you own, it’s who you’re connected to. It’s a view of sustainability that centres relationships – with people, with whenua, with whakapapa. It’s not extractive, it’s reciprocal. If more of us led from that place, the whole system would look different.

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Your best approach for engaging stakeholders in meaningful dialogue about ESG:  

Start with stories. Numbers get attention, but stories move people. I bring in feminist business principles – transparency, reciprocity, collective care, shared power – because they offer a blueprint for doing ESG in a way that’s actually transformative, not just performative.

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What do you think is Aotearoa’s superpower in creating a sustainable future?  

We’re nimble. We can try things, change direction, and adapt quickly if we choose to. We’re not weighed down by the size and slowness of some other economies. Our superpower is speed – but only if we stay brave and connected to our values.

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​ * Surfing the Green Wave | Kakariki

Books, podcasts, courses or other resources that profoundly shaped your approach to sustainability

Jenn Armbrust’s Proposals for the Feminine Economy completely changed how I think about sustainability and business. It gave me language for the kind of leadership I was already practicing but hadn’t seen reflected in mainstream models. It’s an invitation to build something better, not just fit into what already exists.

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Events in Aotearoa or globally that you think are must-attend:  

I love events that bring unusual combinations of people into the same room – like finance professionals, activists, artists, philosophers, and grassroots organisers. It’s always been a part of the mahi we do at Project Gender - to get a range of people in a room because real change happens when those worlds are able to be seen and appreciated. It’s less about a specific conference and more about the energy you find when different kinds of thinkers are in conversation.

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A sustainable initiative or project in Aotearoa that deserves more attention:
Grassroots initiatives that are making finance more accessible to women, Māori, and marginalised communities. Hi Money is part of that,  along with others who are doing the hard, often invisible work of shifting financial literacy, access, and power – and they’re under-funded and under-celebrated. Centering the voices of women is crucial to affect meaningful change which everyone will benefit from.

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If your work could plant one seed of change for the future, what would it be?
That women can hold, grow, and feel good about money. That we understand how our emotions, culture, and lived experiences shape our financial decisions. I want to break the shame, build capability, and create spaces where women can create great relationships with money– on their own terms.

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The leader(s) you endorse for a future edition of Blooming Sustainability:
Rachel Service, Tui Te Hau, Andrew Campbell, Erin Jackson, Andy Blair, Suveen Walgampola, Chamanthie Sinhalage, Rachel Davies, Tania Domett, Dr Orna McGinn, Mark Longbottom– all brilliant humans who lead with generosity, courage, and imagination. They’re building sustainable futures with integrity and bringing others along with them.

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* One actionable takeaway for our readers to make a change today for a brighter tomorrow:

Fund women properly. If you’re in a position to fund or resource gender equity work—do it. Stop expecting women to volunteer their way to systemic change.