- Lead and grow an evolving National Sport Organisation
- Pivotal leadership role at a time of opportunity and change
- Permanent or interim option available
Baseball New Zealand is the national governing body responsible for leading, growing, and developing baseball across Aotearoa, with a vision to be the sport you would recommend to your neighbour: a vibrant, welcoming and aspirational game with clear pathways from grassroots participation to elite performance, and a long-term ambition to pursue Olympic success in 2032.
Reporting to the Board of Directors, the Chief Executive Officer provides strategic, commercial, operational, and cultural leadership for Baseball New Zealand. The role exists to unify a passionate, yet fragmented community, drive unity and trust, strengthen organisational capability, grow participation, secure sustainable funding, and lead the sport into its next era of stability and growth.
As the public face of the organisation, the CEO will embody Baseball NZ’s values of integrity, transparency, commitment, equality, compassion and resilience, and champion a strong “one baseball” culture to significantly enhance the experience of members, partners and stakeholders across the sport. The CEO will also strengthen relationships with Sport New Zealand, international and Olympic bodies, iwi, government, schools, media and commercial partners, and actively advocate for the sport to raise its profile and visibility.
The role is responsible for delivering the organisation’s strategic plan, balancing grassroots development with high-performance aspirations, and continually reviewing the structure of the sport and its partnerships, identifying opportunities for cross-code collaboration, shared services and smarter ways of working. The CEO will lead and develop a small (7) high-performing team, and create clear systems, behaviours and accountability in a resource-constrained environment. Strong financial and commercial stewardship is essential, including disciplined budgeting and forecasting, strengthening financial controls, diversifying revenue streams and developing new commercial partnerships.
A key focus of the role is growing participation and strengthening pathways across all levels of the game. This includes supporting innovative programmes, school and community partnerships, improved competition structures and enhanced game-day delivery, while building clear national pathways that connect community participation to elite performance.
This role requires a unifying, inclusive and values-driven leader who is both visionary and operationally grounded. To succeed in this role, you will bring senior leadership experience in sport, community or other complex stakeholder environments, with a proven ability to build trust, connect diverse groups and lead organisational or cultural transformation. You will have strong commercial, financial and strategic capability, exceptional relationship-building and communication skills, and the emotional intelligence, integrity and resilience required to navigate complexity and pressure.
Experience in an NSO, RSO or Sport New Zealand-funded environment, exposure to high-performance sport or pathway systems, and knowledge of baseball or diamond sports will be advantageous but are not essential.
If you are motivated to lead a proud sport with strong community roots and bold ambitions for the future, we would welcome your application.
The CEO Baseball New Zealand search and recruitment process is being managed exclusively by Sportspeople Recruitment - our 280th CEO search.
In the first instance general enquiries should be directed to Scott Oakhill on +61 408 258 337 or FREECALL NEW ZEALAND 0800 634 388 or +61 2 9555 5000.
