NZ Rugby plans to climb 'Champions for Change' league for women decision-makers

Friday, 18 October 2019

Sky chief executive Martin Steward says the growth of women's soccer shows what's possible for women's rugby.

New Zealand Rugby is playing catch-up among 'Champions for Change' member organisations attempting to get more women onto their boards and into key management roles.

Champions for Change is a group of around 50 powerful chief executives and chairmen and women from some of the biggest businesses and organisations in the country, who are working to get more women, and non-Pakeha, into decision-making positions.

The organisation's second-year report showed just under a third of Champions for Change organisations had fewer than a third of key decision-making positions held by women, but New Zealand Rugby (NZR) was at the bottom of its league table with just 12.5 per cent of board roles held by women.

The only woman in NZR's 'C-suite' of executives, Nicki Nicol said the organisation had joined Champions for Change to make the public statement it was committed to bringing more women, and under-represented Māori and Pasifika, into decision-making roles.

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'We've already seen that by the growth in women's rugby where we have had double digit percentage growth every year for the last three years,' said Nicki Nicol from New Zealand Rugby.

'New Zealand is changing and NZR needs to change with it to remain relevant,' said Nicol, NZR's chief operating officer.

'We also see it as an opportunity.

'We've already seen that by the growth in women's rugby where we have had double digit percentage growth every year for the last three years'

NZR had changed recruitment policies leading to an increase in women decision-makers, she said.

'We also have a programme of work underway dedicated to building a pipeline of female directors who all have the ability to join the NZR board.'

'While we currently have 12.5 per cent female representation on the Board we remain confident that with the work we have done to date we will see an increase over the next couple of years.'

Farah Palmer was currently the only woman on the eight-person NZR board.

By 2021 the goal was to have 40 per cent of NZR leadership roles filled by women, but 2020 would also see a greater focus on pathways for Maori and Pacific leaders across the sport, Nicol said.

The women's Rugby World Cup will be held in New Zealand in 2021.

Women's sport's profile is rising with the FIFA Women's World Cup providing a glimpse of what might be possible for women's rugby.

The semi final of the Women's World Cup between England and USA was watched by 11.7 million people in the UK, and 28.1m Britons watched the final between the USA and the Netherlands.

The English FA now had women in four out of ten board seats, and four out of 11 key leadership roles.

The planned rugby rights deal between SANZAAR and Sky required Sky to lift the profile of the women's game, said Sky chief executive Martin Stewart, who fronted his first annual general meeting of shareholders on Thursday.

'The Lionesses are shortly going to play in front of 90,000 people at Wembley- a complete sell-out. It just shows how the game can grow, if you put the investment behind it,' he said.

'I was at the FA in 2016 when we kicked off the next phase of development of the women's game in English football. I'm very pleased for my former colleagues to see how that's come to fruition. We're trying to do the same thing here.'

Westpac New Zealand chief executive David McLean is co-chair of Champions for Change. He's the father to two girls, and aims to help build the future he wants for them.

Collectively, Champions for Change organisations were doing better on gender equality than companies listed on the NZX sharemarket with their boards on average composed of 37 per cent women compared to 23 per cent for NZX-listed companies.

'Our target is 40:40:20 for gender balance on boards, so it's great to see us getting so close,' said Champions' co-chair David McLean, Westpac chief executive.

The 40:40:20 target was for a minimum of 40 per cent of senior leadership roles on boards and in management to be held by men, 40 per cent by women, and the remaining 20 per cent being of either gender, allowing for a natural flow of people into and out of the organisation.

Companies with women holding at least half of board seats were ACC, Auckland Airport, Contact Energy, Genesis Energy, IBM, NZ Post, NZTE, Spark and Transpower.

Only AUT, Foodstuffs North Island, Heartland Group, and Stuff had half or more of key management positions held by women.