New Sport Hawke’s Bay chair Graeme Taylor is focussed on pushing ahead with a regional facility plan that he hopes will ensure sound decisions are made in the investment in new facilities and as well as upgrades in existing sport and recreation infrastructure.

Mr Taylor has replaced Damon Harvey at the helm of the regional sports trust.

He brings vast governance, sport administration and participation experience to the role. Mr Taylor is a Taradale Ward councillor on Napier City Council, a former professional rugby coach, including coaching the Hurricanes and has been the chief executive of Sport Whanganui and the Halberg Disability Sport Foundation.

Mr Taylor said Sport Hawke’s Bay has an important leadership role across the sport and recreation sector, supporting councils, schools, health providers and sport codes and clubs.

“We have the ability to influence decision making and provide important insights when it comes to decisions that are aimed at getting people more active.

“We want to ensure that there is a cohesive and regional approach, especially when it comes to investing in sport and recreation infrastructure and we are currently working with local councils to develop an up to date regional facility plan.

Two new board members have also been appointed – Lisa Pohatu and Tania Karauria – while Naomi Fergusson has been appointed as deputy chair.

“I’m thrilled with the calibre of board members – both the existing trustees as well as Lisa and Tania. Sport New Zealand has a strong focus on board diversity such as age, ethnicity and gender and we are an exemplar of this.

Lisa Pohatu is looking forward to having a role in getting more people active, especially Māori.

She says the board trustee role complements her professional background in public health and as senior project manager for Kahui Tautoko Consultancy, which specialises in indigenous community development in health, education, sports and physical wellbeing in New Zealand and Canada.

“I really enjoy seeing people out and about being active including my own whānau. I’ve been involved in the Parkrun movement, which sees people turn up on Saturdays to walk or run around Flaxmere Park.

“Physical activity has such an important role in our health and wellbeing and the more opportunities we create for people to be active, the better we all are.

Tania Karauria returned to Hawke’s Bay two years ago, after 20 years in Auckland, and is excited about making a positive contribution to the sport and recreation sector both as a new Sport Hawke’s Bay trustee, as well as in netball.

She is the coach of the Hawke’s Bay men’s team along with a fulltime position at Netball New Zealand as the National Manager of Coaching, which covers community and high performance levels of the sport.

“I’ve been away from Hawke’s Bay for a long time and a key intention of returning is to give back using my experience and involvement in sport, for which I have a huge passion for and how it creates many opportunities for people such as connecting them socially as well as improving health and wellbeing outcomes, for themselves and their whānau.”

Sport Hawke’s Bay chief executive Mark Aspden said it was refreshing to have a new chair, deputy chair and two trustees as well as alignment with Sport New Zealand’s governance accreditation.

“We recently received the Sport New Zealand’s Governance Mark, and the new appointments further demonstrate our commitment to good governance and board diversity.

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