Peter Beirne (52) said on Monday it was only ''day four'' for him, too soon to spell out how he planned to turn around the situation.
He acknowledged the board already had ''plans'', but did not feel able to discuss them in detail until he was more familiar with the situation.
However, he looked forward to the task, saying he enjoyed a challenge.
Mr Beirne said reducing costs in New Zealand would be harder than at the Northern Territory Department of Health and Families, in Darwin, where he worked for about four years.
Mr Beirne worked as acute care executive director, and also as chief operations officer, helping turn around a $12 million deficit in the acute care sector against revenue of $500 million within 18 months. He cited travel as one area in which it was relatively easy to find savings in Australia, which would not be the case here.
Asked about making better use of general practice, he indicated he wished to explore different funding models to allow more procedures to be carried out in the community. He spent a further year in Darwin after leaving the health provider, working as a management consultant.
Asked if he felt health was becoming more political, he said it had always been so, and nothing appeared to have changed in his five years in Australia.
He believed controversial comments from senior doctors' union executive director Ian Powell targeting the Southern District Health Board as one of the country's two most dysfunctional health boards were connected with the union's pay negotiations, and he did not agree with them.
Mr Beirne takes over the post from funding and finance director Robert Mackway-Jones, who leaves next month. Mr Mackway-Jones has been performing a joint role, running planning and funding, and finance. A new planning and funding chief is to be hired.
A chartered accountant, Mr Beirne is originally from Palmerston North, and has held senior posts in two North Island district health boards.
His wife, Karen, will be joining him in the South.
The board's deficit is potentially as high as $13.7 million, a financial report to tomorrow's board meeting in Queenstown says.
