The future of governance in sport

Panel Discussion

no longer available

Speaker(s): Alan Isaac, Liz Dawson
Date: 5:30pm — 7:30pm, 27 February 2024
Venue: ASB Regional Centre Wellington
Location: State Insurance Building, Level 20, 1 Willis Street, Wellington 6011
Price members: $50.00 incl GST
Price non-members: $100.00 incl GST

Overview

The sporting arena is no longer just the realm of the sports people and officials involved in the game. As sport has evolved and professionalised, sophisticated commercial entities have developed to the point where today sporting codes are competing aggressively against each other not only for players, coaches, officials and spectators but also for revenue and business success.

Some of these commercial entities are operating domestically and internationally with hundreds of thousands of people involved in all elements of the game. To ensure these entities are successful and sustainable it’s no surprise that effective governance is acutely important.

We are delighted to have secured a stellar panel who will share insights about the commercial realities, the public scrutiny, the passion and the pressure of being a director involved in sports governance. You’ll hear from the Presidents and Chairs (current and past) of the NZ Olympic Committee, NZ Rugby and NZ Cricket who’ll talk to us about how they have delivered effective governance and how crucial it is to ensure financial success and that the needs and desires of their stakeholders are met. The fact that these stakeholders are so diverse brings a unique set of challenges, spanning as they do, volunteers to multinational corporate sponsors.

Our panellists Liz Dawson, Alan Isaac and David Pilkington will explore governance of sporting organisations and the realities of the modern world.

Panellists

Alan Isaac DistFInstD

Alan is distinguished director, holding governance roles with a wide variety of New Zealand commercial, sporting and not for profit organisations.

He served as President of the International Cricket Council (ICC) from 2012 to 2014, the first New Zealander to hold the position. Prior to the ICC, he was on the board of New Zealand Cricket for 18 years and served as its Chair from 2008 to 2010. He was the Chair of KPMG for 10 years (1996-2006) and President of the Institute of Directors’ National Council (2019-2021).

He currently chairs the New Zealand Community Trust and is a director on the board of Selacs Insurance Ltd. He is also a director on the boards and chairs the Audit & Risk committees of Oceania Healthcare Ltd, Skellerup Holdings Ltd, Scales Corp Ltd/SCL Ltd and the Wellington Free Ambulance. Alan’s current community sporting roles include chair of the Basin Reserve Trust and serving as a trustee on both the Wellington Cricket Trust and the Wellington Cricket Foundation.

Alan is an IoD Distinguished Fellow and a Fellow of Chartered Accountants. He was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) in 2013 for services to business and cricket. In 2015, he received the distinguished alumni award from Victoria University of Wellington.

David Pilkington CFInstD

David has recently Chaired NZ Rugby’s independent review panel of their constitution and governance structure, with the aim of ensuring that rugby is best placed for the future.

David graduated with a BSc and BE (Chem) from Canterbury University. He then completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Dairy Science and Technology at Massey University, prior to joining the New Zealand Dairy Board where he spent his executive career in a variety of senior management positions both in New Zealand and offshore. These included President of NZMP (Japan) based in Japan and CEO NZMP (North America) based in California, USA. In 2000, prior to the formation of Fonterra, David was appointed Managing Director of New Zealand Milk Ltd, the dairy industry’s global foodservice and consumer products business. He continued in this role until May 2004 whereupon he left Fonterra and formed Excelsa Associates Ltd establishing a fulltime governance portfolio.

David’s directorships have covered a variety of companies including Ballance Agri-Nutrients Ltd, Zespri Group Ltd, Port of Tauranga Ltd (Chair), Northport Limited (Chair), Primeport Timaru, Restaurant Brands Ltd, Douglas Pharmaceuticals Ltd (Chair), Rangatira Limited (Chair), Tuatara Brewing, Heller Tasty (Chair), Contract Resources, Ruapehu Alpine Lifts (Chair) and Prevar NZ Ltd (Chair). David also served for 9 years as an independent appointee to the Wellington City Council Audit and Risk Management Subcommittee.

David recently retired as Chair of Port of Tauranga after 17 years on the board. During his time spent at New Zealand’s largest, fastest growing and most efficient port, David has seen and driven many changes throughout the sector.

David’s current governance roles include, Rangatira Limited (Chair), Douglas Pharmaceuticals (Chair) and New Zealand Community Trust (NZCT) where he chairs the National Grants Committee. In this capacity David has overseen the distribution of grant funding to many of New Zealand’s sporting codes.

He is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Directors and a Committee Member of the Wellington Branch. David completed the Advanced Management Programme (AMP) at Harvard University and attended London Business School.

In 2019 he was awarded The Deloitte Top 200 “Chairperson of the Year” award.

Liz Dawson MInstD

Dawson was elected as President of the NZ Olympic Committee Board in 2022, having served on a director since 2012. Liz is based in the Wairarapa and Wellington and is a member of the International Olympic Committee’s Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, the IOC’s Safeguarding Working Group, represents the region of Oceania as a member of the ANOC Gender Equity Commission and is Co-Chair of the Equity Commission for Oceania.

Dawson has served on and continues to do so, a number of independent review panels and ministerial appointments, particularly in relation to sport and the racing and betting sectors.

Dawson has been a director and Chair of a number of boards over the past 20 years in both the sporting and commercial sectors, following an executive career in FMCG, Financial Services, and sport.

Dawson was awarded the Member of New Zealand Order of Merit in 2018 for services to sport.

Additional information

Covid-19 precautions

By registering for this event you are confirming that you agree to adhere to our Covid-19 health and safety measures. If you are unwell or have any Covid-19 symptoms please do not attend this event.