20 Jul 2011

Paul Collins to chair High Performance Sport New Zealand

1:20 pm on 20 July 2011

The first board of directors for High Performance Sport New Zealand will be chaired by SPARC's current chairman Paul Collins.

The new organisation, formed by merging the SPARC high performance unit with the two New Zealand Academies of Sport, will have an annual spend of about $60 million.

Sport and Recreation Minister Murray McCully says it will have its own chief excutive and will allow athletes to focus on performance rather than funding.

The other board appointments are Katie Sadleir, Don Mackinnon and Bill Birnie from SPARC's board and Academy of Sport nominees Mike Stanley for the North Island and Peter Cox for the South.

Simon Wickham is the New Zealand Olympic Committee nominee and there are two independent members, Mark Weldon and Olympic triathlon gold medalist Hamish Carter.

SPARC's chief executive Peter Miskimmin is an ex-officio member.