Dame Liz Nicholl DBE has today been re-elected as World Netball’s President at their Congress, taking place in Cape Town, South Africa ahead of the Netball World Cup 2023 (NWC2023).
Nicholl was first elected as President of WN in 2019, and in her first four-year term Nicholl has taken the sport to new heights, most notably leading the Board in the development of the WN Strategic Plan ’To Grow, to Play and to Inspire’.
Meanwhile, retired England Netballer, Stacey Francis-Bayman, has been appointed as the first ever Athlete Director to sit on the World Netball Board after receiving a vote of confidence from the Membership.
Francis-Bayman has been a key part of the WN’s Voice of the Athlete Working Group that was set up in 2021 with the task to determine a suitable framework for a future WN Athlete Commission.
Other changes see WN’s Finance Director, Ann Tod, step down after 12 years of service as Finance Director on the WN Board, with Suri Bartlett appointed as WN’s first ‘Independent’ Finance Director, whilst Catherine Lewis was elected by the Membership for a second term as their representative on the Nominations Committee.
Two of WN’s Regional Directors, Marva Bernard OD (Director – Americas) and Gaby Hochbaum (Director – Asia) have also stepped down from their roles.
Thanking the three Directors Nicholl said: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ann, Marva and Gaby for their years of service to World Netball.
“Their contributions have been invaluable, with Ann expertly chairing the Audit & Risk Committee and Governance Committees, Marva a member of the Audit & Risk Committee and Board champion for our global development programme and Gaby a member of the Governance Committee and a Board representative to the Voice of the Athlete Working Group.
“They will all remain key parts of the Netball Family moving forward, despite stepping down from these roles.”
Dr Bridget Adams will replace Bernard as the Americas Regional Director, whilst Victoria Lakshmi will replace Gaby Hochbaum, both having been elected to serve on the WN Board by their respective regional Federations.
Lyn Carpenter and Wainikiti Bogidrau have been re-elected for a second term of four years by Europe Netball and Oceania Netball respectively.
All changes to the Board take effect following the closing ceremony of the Netball World Cup 2023.
World Netball will be posting live updates from Congress across its social media channels. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram to keep up to date and use the hashtag #WNCongress23 to get involved.
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