Mike King Steps Down from I Am Hope Foundation
Mental health advocate Mike King has announced he is stepping down as chief executive of the I Am Hope Foundation, the charity he founded to improve youth mental health support in New Zealand.
King said on Wednesday that it was the right time for “fresh leadership” to guide the organisation into its next chapter.
“Building this organisation from scratch has been one of the greatest privileges of my life,” King said. “I’ve loved every second of this journey. I’m incredibly proud of the impact we’ve made through Gumboot Friday. Now it’s time for someone else to build on that legacy.”
Under King’s leadership, I Am Hope launched Gumboot Friday in 2019, an initiative that has since provided more than 137,000 free counselling sessions to young New Zealanders.
A spokesperson for the foundation confirmed that succession planning had been under way since October.
Funding and Executive Pay Scrutiny
King’s resignation follows a period of increased scrutiny over the foundation’s finances. In 2024, Stuff revealed that two executives earned a combined $527,000 in the last financial year — nearly double the total paid out in the year before.
The foundation said the higher salaries reflected the costs of expanding its leadership team after receiving a $24 million government funding boost over four years. The funding arrangement was later criticised by the Auditor-General, who found that it had bypassed standard public spending processes.
Critics from within the mental health sector described the executive pay as “excessive”, while Labour’s mental health spokesperson Ingrid Leary questioned whether taxpayer money was being used responsibly.
“Community providers I’ve spoken to could do so much with that money,” Leary said. “This hardly sounds like the transparency Gumboot Friday promised, or that the public deserve.”
A New Role Ahead
Despite stepping down as CEO, King says he will remain involved with I Am Hope in a new capacity.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said. “My passion for helping young people hasn’t changed. I’ll be taking on a new role that lets me get back to what I love most — connecting with people, challenging the system, and championing hope.”
The foundation will soon begin its search for a new chief executive to lead the charity into its next phase.