SPEAKERS

Fiona Allan was appointed Chief Executive and Secretary General of Paralympics New Zealand in 2008.

Fiona is a passionate advocate for the development of Para sport nationally, regionally and globally. She is a member of the International Paralympic Committee Women in Sport Committee, a member on the International Olympic Committee Digital Engagement and Marketing Communications Commission, a Global Executive member of the International Working Group (IWG) on Women & Sport, a member of Global Women and Vice President of the Carbine Club of New Zealand.

Fiona was awarded an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2018 for her work as a champion of Paralympic sport.

She has more than 25 years’ experience in central and local Government, and sport.

Caitlin has been a part of the Knowledge Edge team since 2017 and is now a Senior Insights Researcher. She holds a Master of Applied Science from the Otago Polytechnic Institute of Sport, Exercise, and Health.

Caitlin's role in the Knowledge Edge team is to grow NSO learning capabilities through systematic tracking and use of evidence about pinnacle event preparation and performance.

Outside of HPSNZ, Caitlin is a semi-professional cricketer, having played for the Otago Sparks since 2012 and recently been selected to play in the North Island vs South Island series.

Reanna is an academically trained and practicing futurist with experience in business, sport, and workforce futures. She has recently been named as one of the World's Top Female Futurists by fellow practitioners. Reanna has held roles as both a consulting and ‘in-house’ futurist, working with a global client base across public, private, NFP and start-up sectors. She also has a background in high performance cricket as both an athlete, coach and game development administrator so is well placed to build practical foresight capability within a sport context.

Raelene is the Chief Executive of High Performance Sport New Zealand and Sport New Zealand.

She joined Sport New Zealand after seven years working in Australia as Chief Executive of the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and then Chief Executive of Rugby Australia. She was previously Chief Executive of Netball New Zealand from 2007 to 2013.

Before beginning her career in sports administration, Raelene built a successful career in communications, sales and marketing. This included general management and other senior roles at Telecom New Zealand (now Spark), Bank of New Zealand and Fuji Xerox.

Raelene has held several governance roles in sport, previously serving as a board director of the ANZ Championship Netball, International Federations of Netball Associations, SANZAAR Rugby and the World Rugby Council. She also has a rich sporting background as a former representative-level netball, tennis and lawn bowls player. Raelene was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in 2015 for services to Business and Sport.

Lynette has a wealth of experience in international and national event management, operations and logistics and High Performance Sport.

With a career spanning more than 20 years, her previous experience includes Tournament Director for the iconic Wellington International Rugby Sevens event, High Performance Programme Director with Netball New Zealand, four Paralympic Games campaigns with two of these as Deputy Chef de Mission (Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022).

Lynette’s unique combination of skills ensure that all Para athletes and staff selected for New Zealand Paralympic Teams have environments where they are supported to thrive at their pinnacle event.

Luke joined Snow Sports NZ in June 2017 and is now High Performance Manager. He grew up surfing and climbing in sunny California but developed a passion for freestyle skiing from a young age, chasing the snow whenever, and wherever, he could.

Chasing the snow led to numerous back to back winters coaching freestyle at the likes of Mammoth Mountain, Squaw Valley, Niseko Japan, and Cardrona Alpine Resort. Luke is also a highly qualified judge and has sat on the panel at multiple high profile events in the freestyle and freeride worlds, including X Games, Dew Tour and the North Face Frontier.

Luke brings to the team a passion for freestyle snow sports, ski and snowboard. He is dedicated to helping grow our junior level sports, as well as supporting our elite athletes in their search for medals.

Nicki joined the NZOC in March 2022 from NZ Rugby where she was Chief Financial Officer and then Deputy CEO and Chief Operating Officer. She led the implementation of the Respect & Responsibility Review, that focused on strategies to create stronger and more inclusive environments across rugby. Nicki then led the financial response to the Covid-19 crisis in 2020, successfully mitigating significant losses while creating an all-of-game response plan. Following organisational change in 2020, she took on a new role as Chief Transformation Officer, to lead the co-ordination and rebuild of Rugby in a post Covid-19 world, ensuring it remained relevant to fans and members alike.

Prior to working at New Zealand Rugby, Nicki held numerous senior leadership roles at BP in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. She is a qualified Chartered Accountant and has breadth in governance and is a member of the Institute of Directors.

Nicki was also the director of Women in Sport Aotearoa (WISPA New Zealand), the organisation that led the IWG Women in Sport Global Conference 2022.

Kevin Rempel is a 2014 Paralympic bronze medallist in sledge hockey.

After being paralysed at the age of 23, Kevin not only learned how to walk again, but overcome the mental battle of both depression and living with a disability to rebuild his life, and eventually reach the Paralympic podium in sledge hockey.

Kevin is an expert in change management, mental health, and resilience, delivering his inspirational message about adopting The Hero Mindset, where you focus on small things that make a big difference to help you too, become a hero in your own movie. In addition to corporate presentations, Kevin is also an executive coach using strategies from The Hero Mindset Blueprint to help leaders cultivate confidence, adopt healthy and predictable patterns, and accept radical responsibility in cultivating a confident and empowered mindset to drive results and embrace change.

Steve is an internationally renowned sports administrator. Having previously held the position of Chief Executive Officer for New Zealand Rugby from 2008 to 2019 and the Crusaders from 1996 to 2001, Steve remains active in sporting matters having assisted Sport New Zealand to review the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on professional sport and National Sporting Organisations.

He is also an Advisor to World Rugby and USA Rugby as well as holding several Board Directorships.

Prior to joining the Padres where he has been for five seasons, Don spent seven years as the High Performance Manager for New Zealand Rugby (NZR) and led their High Performance Programme. He facilitated the development of their NZR’s High Performance Strategy, facilitated the All Blacks 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cup campaign plans, and completed the reviews of those campaigns. Prior to joining NZR, Don was a Performance Consultant with HPSNZ, leading the development of New Zealand’s Coaching strategy.

Don played softball for New Zealand’s national team from 1985 to 1991, finishing second at the 1988 World Championships. He coached the Black Sox from 1998 to 2004, leading them to World Titles in 2000 and 2004. Don was inducted to the New Zealand Softball Hall of Fame and the International Softball Federation Hall of Fame and was named Coach of the Year at the Halberg awards in 2000. He was also honoured in 2004 with an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

Rob Waddell was the NZ Team Chef de Mission at the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games and the 2016 and 2022 Summer Olympic Games. He contributed an incredible amount of in depth understanding of high performance sport to the role.

Rob is a New Zealand Olympic Gold Medallist and double World Champion Single sculler rower, and America's Cup yachtsman. He is a triple New Zealand Supreme 'Halberg Awards' Sportsperson of the year winner, 1998 to 2000. Rob also holds a black belt in judo.

He has made a wide contribution at a governance level across the not-for-profit sector, including roles with the Halberg Disability Trust, Te Awa River Trust and the Home of Cycling.

Rob has a business degree with Honours and his other interests include being Co-owner / manager for his own thoroughbred agistment business in Cambridge.

Fiona joined HPSNZ in 2017 as a member of the Performance and Technique Analysis team. She recently moved to the Knowledge Edge team as a Senior Insights Researcher.

Fiona worked extensively at Rowing New Zealand in the Performance Science discipline, supporting the physiological and biomechanical needs of the athletes. Noting the large reliance on data and having a keen interest in solving problems led her to join the Knowledge Edge team.

Fiona holds a Master of Science Degree (with Distinction) from Cardiff Metropolitan University, focussing on Variance of International Competition Results in Elite Rowing.

Jake is Team Services Director for the New Zealand Olympic Committee.

Jake has been with the NZOC since 2007 and leads its Team Services team who are responsible for delivering performance focused team environments. For Olympic (Summer and Winter) and Commonwealth Games, Jake is Deputy Chef de Mission of the New Zealand Team.

His wealth of experience sees him regularly involved with IOC and CGF working groups, and for Tokyo 2020 he was one of four National Olympic Committee representatives on the IOC’s Coordination Commission.