By Greg Blood

The departures of CEO’s in 2020 from significant Australian sports organisations – ASC, cricket, rugby union, rugby league, golf and equestrian – has made me reflect on the level of turnover of CEO’s since 2000. Part 1 will list CEO changes within national sports organisations during this period.

The information listed in Part 1 was obtained from annual reports, websites and LinkedIn profiles. The Clearinghouse for Sport’s Australian Sport Publications Archive assisted in the data collection as it has digitally preserved many NSO annual reports since 2000. The listing is restricted to the period 2000-2021 due to access to annual reports/websites and this period has seen significant growth in many national sports organisations in terms of revenue and staffing. It is restricted to permanent CEO’s (Chief Executive Officers)/ NED’s (National Executive Directors) – the later was the earlier name for the CEO role. Several of the CEO’s listed straddled the 1990’s and 2000’s.

Australian Government

Australian Sports Commission – Jim Ferguson (1990-2000), Mark Peters (2001-2008), Matt Miller (2009-2011), Simon Hollingsworth (2012-2016), Kate Palmer (2017-2020), Rob Dalton acting (2020-2022), Kieran Perkins (2022- )

Australian Institute of Sport – John Boultbee (1995-2000), Michael Scott (2001-2005), Dr Peter Fricker (2005-2011), Matt Favier (2012-2017), Peter Conde (2017-2022), Vacant

Sport Integrity Australia (formerly Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority) – Steve Haynes (1991-1995), Natalie Howson (1995-2001), John Mendoza (2001-2005), Richard Ings (2006-2010), Aurora Andruska (2010-2014), Ben McDevitt (2014-2017), David Sharpe (2017-)

Peak Sports Organisations

Australian Olympic Committee – Craig McLatchey (1995-2001), Bob Elphinston (2001-2004), Craig Phillips (2005-2014), Fiona de Jong (2014-2016), Matt Carroll (2017-)

Paralympics Australia – Brendan Flynn (1999-2003), Darren Peters (2003-2009), Miles Murphy (2009), Jason Hellwig (2010-2015), Lynne Anderson (2015-2021), Catherine Clark (2022-)

Commonwealth Games Australia – Perry Crosswhite (1995-2015), Craig Phillips (2015- )

National Sports Organisations

Listed in alphabetical order by sport and the current name of the organisation.

Archery Australia – Jim Larven (2002-2017), Rick Hastie (2017-)

Athletics Australia – Simon Allatson (1999-2004), Danny Corcoran (2004-2010), Dallas O’Brien (2010-2014), Phil Jones (2015-2017), Darren Gocher (2017-2021), Peter Bromley (2021 -)

Australian Football League – Wayne Jackson (1996-2003), Andrew Demetriou (2003-2014), Gillon McLachlan (2014-2023), Andrew Dillon (2023- )

Badminton Australia – Julia Phillips (1997-2000), Bill Storey Smith (2001-2002), Stuart Borrie (2003-2007), Damian Kelly (2007-2008), Paul Brettell (2008-2018), Derek O’Leary (2018-2019), James Parsons (2020-2023), Tjitta Weistra (2023-)

Baseball Australia – Don Knapp (1995-2007), John May (2007-2011), Brent Pickett (2011-2017), Cam Vale (2017-2021), Glenn Williams (2021-)

Basketball Australia – Scott Derwin (1999-2008), Larry Sengstock (2009-2012), Kristina Keneally (2012-2014), Anthony Moore (2014-2018), Jerril Rechter (2019-2021), Matt Scriven (2021-)

Bowls Australia – Mark Rendell (1996-2007), Neil Dalrymple (2007-2022), Matthew Kennedy (2022- )

Boxing Australia – Grant Peters (2000-2005), Jandra Cox (2006-2009), Kable Kelleway (2011-2015), Paul Grogan (2015-2018), Josh O’Brien (2018-2021),Dinah Glykidis (2021-)

Combat Institute of Australia – Alex Vallentine (2020-)

Cricket Australia – Malcolm Speed (1997-2001), James Sutherland (2001-2018), Kevin Roberts (2018-2020), Nick Hockley (2020-)

Cycling Australia/AusCycling – Graham Fredericks (1996-2013), Nick Green (2014-2018), Steven Drake (2018-2020), Marne Fechner (2021-)

Diving Australia – Mary Godden (1993-2013), David Bell (2013-2022), Alex Newton (2022-)

Equestrian Federation of Australia – Denzil O’Brien (1996-2001), Franz Venhaus (2002-2010), Grant Baldock (2010-2015), Paula Ward (2016-2018), Lucy Warhurst (2018-2020), Darren Gocher (2021-)

Football Federation of Australia – David Woolley (1995-2001), Ian Holmes (2001-2002), Alan Vessey (2002), John O’Neill (2004-2006), Ben Buckley (2006-2012), David Gallop (2012-2019), James Johnson (2020-)

Golf Australia (formed 2006) – Tony Hallam (2006-2008), Stephen Pitt (2008-2020), James Sutherland (2020- )

Gymnastics Australia – Jane Allen (1997-2010), Catherine Clark (2010-2012), Mark Rendell (2012-2017), Kitty Chiller (2017-2021), Alexandra Ash (2022-2024), Vacant

Hockey Australia – Linden Adamson (1991 – 2008), Mark Anderson (2008-2013), Cam Vale (2013-2017), Matt Favier (2017-August 2021), David Pyles (2022-)

Judo Australia – Paula Ward (2014-2015), Alex Vallentine (2015-2020), Emma Taylor (2021-2022), Rebecca Hamilton (2023- )

Netball Australia – Pam Smith (1990-2003), Lindsay Cane (2004-2006), Kate Palmer (2007-2016), Marne Fechner (2016-2020), Kelly Ryan (2021-2023), Vacant

Paddle Australia – Jon Bisset (1997-2005), Robert Barnes (2005-2006), Gordon Allen (2006), Kate Heeley (2006-2007), Greg Doyle (2008-2017), Phil Jones (2017-2024), Kim Crane (after 2024 Paris Games)

Rowing Australia – Darren Peters (1997-2002), Andrew Dee (2003-2014), Michael Scott (2015-2017), Ian Robson (2018-2023), Sarah Cook (2023-)

National Rugby League – David Moffatt (1999-2001), David Gallop (2002-2012), David Smith (2012-2015), Todd Greenberg (2016-2020), Andrew Abdo (2020- )

Australian Rugby Union – John O’Neill (1995-2003), Gary Flowers (2004-2007), John O’Neill (2007-2013), Bill Pulver (2013-2017), Raelene Castle (2017-2020), Andy Marinos (2022-2023), Phil Waugh (2023-)

Australian Sailing – Phil Jones (1997-2014), Matt Carroll (2014-2017), John Lee (2017-2018), Ben Houston (2019-)

Shooting Australia (formed 2006) – Nick Sullivan (2006- 2013), Damien Marangon (2013-2019), Luke van Kempen (2019-2021), Adam Sachs (2022-)

Snow Australia – Steven Potts (1999-2002), Michael Kennedy (2002-)

Softball Australia – Neil Dalrymple (1995-2004), Susan Crow (2004-2007), Mark McAllion (2007-2008), Susan Noble (2009-2012), Chet Gray (2013-2018), David Pryles (2018-2021), Rosie Williams (2022-2023), Sarah Loh (2023-)

Squash Australia – Phil Trenorden (1991 – 2000), Ross Barry (2001-2002), Norman Fry (2003-2007), Gary O’Donnell (2007-2015), Richard Vaughan (2015-2020), Robert Donaghue (2021-)

Surf Life Saving Australia – Greg Nance (1996-2006), Brett Williamson (2006-2013), Greg Nance (2013-2015), Melissa King (2015-2018), Adam Weir (2018-)

Surfing Australia – Alan Atkins (2000-2003), Mario Agius (2004-2005), Mark Lance (2006-2009), Andrew Stark (2009-2018), Chris Mater (2018-)

Swimming Australia – Vena Murray (1995-2001), Glenn Tasker (2001-2008), Kevin Neil (2008-2012), Mark Anderson (2013-2018), Leigh Russell (2018-2020), Alex Baumann (2021), Eugenie Buckley (2021-2023), Rob Woodhouse (2024- )

Table Tennis Australia – Anne-Maree Colborne (2001), Matt Padley (2002-2003), Martin Shaw (2003-2005), Linda Marsden (2005-2006), Bronwyn Marshall (2007-2008), Peter Marriott (2009-2017), Scott Houston (2017-2023), Nicole Adamson (2023-)

Australian Taekwondo – Joelie Chisholm (2015-2017), John Gradisar (20182020), Heather Garriock (2020-2023), Vacant

Tennis Australia – Geoff Pollard (President & CEO) (1989-2005), Steve Wood (2005-2013), Craig Tiley (2013-)

Tenpin Bowling Australia – Cara Honeychurch (2010-2020), Martin Stillman (2021), Rohan O’Neill (2021-2024)

Triathlon Australia – Tim Wilson (1993-2002), David Burt (2002-2004), Andrew Hamilton (2005-2010), Anne Gripper (2010-2015), Miles Stewart (2015-2022), Tim Harradine (2022-)

Volleyball Australia – Andrew Scotford (2000-2007), Joan Perry (2007-2012), Judy Flanagan (2012-2013), Mathieu Meriaux (2013-2017), Andrew Dee (2018-)

Water Polo Australia – John Whitehouse (1982-2011), Chris Harrison (2010-2016), Christian Renford (2016-2018), Joelie Chisholm (2018-2019), Richard McInnes (2019-2023), Tim Welsford (2023- )

Weightlifting Australia – Robert Kabbas (2000-2002), Matthew Curtain (2002-2009), Michael Keelan (2009-2018), Ian Moir (2018-)

Original publication updated after feedback.

For comments or alterations to the list contact Greg Blood.