Hockey Australia makes significant ‘Gaines’ in governance

The governance and future direction of Hockey Australia (HA) has been bolstered with the appointment of Alison Gaines FAICD as Nominations Committee Independent Chair (Photo courtesy of Business News).

Gaines, a governance advisor to Australian boards with two decades of involvement in not for profit and listed company directorships, has been appointed to the voluntary role responsible for leadership of the HA Nominations Committee.

The Nominations Committee identifies potential candidates for the HA Board of Directors. Gaines is tasked with overseeing this process including reviewing the Board Skills Matrix, determining the candidate sourcing strategy and assessing eligibility of nominations in line with Constitutional requirements.

The creation of a HA Nominations Committee Independent Chair role arose through consultation with Sport Australia as part of the support it provides to National Sporting Organisations (NSOs) around best practice governance.

“We undertake an annual assessment of our performance against the Sports Governance Standards and we are currently working through a process called a ‘Governance and Organisational Enhancement Plan’ alongside Sport Australia,” said HA Acting CEO Michael Johnston.

“Our nominations area was identified as one we could improve on as an organisation and a sport, so we worked with Sport Australia to develop an improved process in order to go out to a broader market and get the best calibre of board directors possible.”

“We have done a redesign of our Terms of Reference and also of the committee structure, and the recommendation was to go down the path of what a number of other NSOs have done.

“We received support from the State and Territory Member Associations, so we went out with an expression of interest process and received some really strong candidates.

“Alison put her name forward and was selected. She has extensive experience in boards, nominations committees and corporate recruitment which is exactly what we need.”

Having chaired the nominations committees of various organisations and being a member of several nominations committees in Australia and internationally, securing someone of Gaines’ calibre and understanding of Australian and international business and governance is a significant coup for HA.

The Perth based businesswoman looks forward to investing time and energy into the role for the betterment of Australian hockey.

Gaines said of her role, “I have made a career advising boards about their best composition and assisting to find great board candidates.”

“I’ve seen boards thrive because they give proper attention to the skills they require to govern and have put in the effort to build a good candidate pool and fair nomination process.

“It’s exciting that HA is putting in this effort as part of hockey’s commitment to good governance.”

Gaines has already started in the role, which is for a three year period.