Sport Wellington named winner in Women in Governance Awards

Media Release

22 May 2017

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sport Wellington named winner for ‘Governance Innovation by a Not-for-Profit’ in the Women in Governance Awards

Sport Wellington has been named as winner of the ‘Governance Innovation by a Not-for-Profit’ award at the Women in Governance Awards held on the 18th of May at the Novotel Ellerslie in Auckland.

The national Women in Governance Awards recognises and celebrates innovation, excellence, creativity and commitment to diversity by both organisations and individuals. The awards evening acknowledged the commitment finalists and winners have made in promoting, enhancing and supporting gender diversity in the governance space.

The ‘Governance Innovation by a Not-for-Profit’ award recognises a Not-for-Profit or Charity that has put in place programmes, initiatives or strategies that are effecting change at an organisational and/or cultural level to create a more gender diverse organisation.

“The judges described Sport Wellington as an organisation that has a healthy balance between diversity of gender, age, ethnicity, backgrounds, skills and experience. They have developed a fresh thinking connections framework and are implementing a strategy into annual action. They have attracted and retained talented women in both the organisation and on the board,” said Women on Boards, Chief Executive, Linda Noble.

Sport Wellington was also a finalist in the ‘Women in Governance Organisation of the Year’ category which recognises organisations that have consistently achieved outstanding performance in organisational governance and demonstrates a commitment to gender diversity.

“We have made great progress towards achieving gender diversity, in particular, at the leadership level of Board and management. Five of our nine Board members and three of our five business unit managers are women,” said David Clarke, Chair of the Sport Wellington Board.

“Sport is a male-oriented sector and there have been ongoing efforts over many years to drive greater gender balance amongst decision-makers in sport, especially at governance level. While this drive has focused on national organisations, we believe that diversity and gender balance is of greatest importance at community level given the nature and make-up of the communities represented across our region.

Sport Wellington continuously reviews its performance at the governance and organisational level and this was recently recognised by attaining the Sport NZ Good Governance mark,” said Mr Clarke.

Sport Wellington is one of 14 Regional Sport Trusts within New Zealand and is governed by a Board of Trustees, all of whom are volunteers; David Clarke, Chair, Paula Tesoriero, Deputy Chair, Grant Richardson, Darrin Sykes, Karen Aitken, Nicola Airey, Grant Baker, Clare Elcome and Lorena Stephen.

A not for profit organization, Sport Wellington was established in 1990 and is funded by Sport NZ, local councils and various other partners and sponsors. Its purpose is “To provide region wide leadership to the sport and active recreation community wherever they are in the region in order to enable people to have: (1) Motivation, for sustained and regular participation; (2) Opportunities to participate whatever their needs; and (3) Meaningful experiences at all levels. We operate within a wide geographical area spanning Otaki to Masterton, Wellington City and surrounding cities and suburbs.

Sport Wellington’s vision is “Everyone in the greater Wellington region has a lifelong involvement in sport and active recreation”.

A full list of the Women in Governance Awards finalists and winners can be found at www.governancenz.org

ENDS

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