Hockey Australia makes string of key off-field appointments

Hockey Australia (HA) is pleased to announce three new appointments to its Executive Leadership Team, further bolstering the calibre of leaders in the organisation and continuing the sport’s positive trajectory.

David Lee has been appointed Chief Revenue Officer, Lauren DeGioia will step into Acting Chief Digital and Communications Officer, while Simon Butterly becomes Chief Events Officer.

The appointments follow the decision to split the existing commercial operations into three new areas – Revenue, Events and Digital & Communications, which will support Hockey Australia’s strategic purpose of growing and nurturing the game across Australia.

David Lee is an experienced senior commercial executive who spent over six years at Netball Australia as a member of the Executive Team. His career spans commercial sponsorship, broadcasting, event management, ticketing, merchandising and digital strategy. He also worked at the Amy Gillett Foundation and the Melbourne Cricket Club, as well as consulting to a number of organisations through his own business.

Lauren DeGioia has over 12 years’ experience working in sports and events environments across digital marketing, communications, media and content management. She has spent the last six years working in London for a leading international sports technology and data organisation and the International Tennis Federation (ITF). Prior to that she held roles at Rugby Australia, the NSW Waratahs and the Rugby Union Players’ Association (RUPA).

Simon Butterly has been HA’s Senior Events Manager since October 2022. In his time, Butterly has successfully run the Kookaburras and Hockeyroos series in Adelaide plus this year’s home FIH Pro League ‘mini tournaments’ in Sydney and Hobart, while being an integral part of HA’s other hosted events. Previously, Butterly was a Manager at Life Saving Victoria following 17 years working for PGA Australia.

HA has also recently introduced a Growth Department, a team whose overriding goal is to enhance the game’s development and increase participation, creating more opportunities to engage with hockey year-round. The Growth team replaces the previous Strategy & Game Development Department. To lead this area, HA appointed Suzanne Henderson to the role of Chief Growth Officer in February.

Suzanne Henderson was previously General Manager – Game Development and a member of the Executive Leadership team at Hockey Victoria. For the last 11 years, she has done outstanding work for Hockey Victoria and the hockey community, particularly in increasing the participation of women and girls in hockey in Victoria from 38% to 43%, growing the number of clubs with at least 40% women on their boards to 70% and by developing and delivering key inclusion and diversity programs and events that have led to more inclusive clubs.

These appointments are in line with the Australian hockey whole of sport 2023-24 Strategic Plan, which has the underlying objective to, ‘increase the opportunities for everyone in Australia to enjoy the game of hockey anywhere, anytime.’

“The reasoning for the re-structure is to best set up each employee and the organisation for success and provide additional resourcing to the overall team to achieve the whole of sport strategic vision,” said CEO David Pryles, who is into his second year in the position.

“As part of our Executive Leadership Team, these individuals will be massive assets to the organisation and the sport. They are experts in their field, have great leadership attributes, but more importantly are quality people who are passionate about achieving the best outcomes for hockey in Australia.”