"Congratulations Michelle on your appointment to this CE role. It has been a real pleasure working with you and supporting the board on this critical placement, as Hockey NZ forges the next chapter in its development." - Ian Taylor, Managing Director, Sheffield North Island.
Sheffield team: Ian Taylor, Raewyn Brown, Tash Wilson, Kelly Smith
Press Release
Hockey New Zealand announces new CEO, Michelle Hollands
Hockey New Zealand (Hockey NZ) is pleased to announce the appointment of Michelle Hollands as Hockey NZ’s new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The appointment has been made following an extensive search process after former CEO Anthony Crummy stepped away in March, to prioritise his health.
Michelle brings with her a unique blend of strategic insight, commercial leadership, and deep-rooted passion for hockey to the role. A former Black Stick (nee Turner) with 99 international caps, she has represented New Zealand at the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, and World Cup—which has given her a lived understanding of the high-performance environment, as well as a lifelong commitment to the game.
She has a degree in Physical Education, post graduate diplomas in Management/Sport Management, and a Master of Business Administration.
Over the past two decades, Michelle has been a business owner as well as holding executive leadership roles across sporting, commercial, and regional development sectors. Her experience includes leading transformational strategies at organisations such as Sport Waikato and Te Waka, Waikato’s regional economic development agency, where she built high-performing teams and delivered large-scale, cross-sector initiatives. She has also developed strong entrepreneurial and business development skills, through business ownership and as a consultant.
Through her Freshminds consultancy, Michelle has worked with leading national organisations including NZ Rugby, Rowing NZ, Basketball NZ and Hockey NZ—to design high-performance strategies, guide system-wide improvements and strengthen community engagement. At Hockey NZ, many of our community worked with Michelle when she led Hiki Tu (our sport-wide pathways design project) last year, and she also played a key role in Project Kahurangi (our high-performance review) in 2021.
Michelle brings extensive governance experience, with board roles across national and international sporting bodies including Oceania Hockey Federation, Badminton New Zealand and Northern Districts Cricket. She is a chartered member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors.
As CEO, Michelle’s primary focus will be to lead the delivery of Hockey NZ’s strategic goals—driving success on the world stage through a robust high-performance system; strengthening the grassroots base through a high-functioning connected network; growing participation and fandom across our communities; and developing a strong, sustainable financial base. She is also looking forward to meeting and working with our many partners and stakeholders.
We are grateful to Acting CEO Ken Maplesden for his strong and steady leadership of Hockey NZ over the past 10 months, through a very challenging period. After nine years in senior positions at Hockey NZ, Ken has decided to pursue other opportunities, however, has agreed to remain in the role until Michelle joins Hockey NZ on 8 October.