New Zealand Football has announced Andrew Pragnell as the Chief Executive Officer of the organisation.
Mr Pragnell, who has been the Interim CEO of New Zealand Football since 30 July last year, has impressed in the role in the past 10 months with his high level of stakeholder engagement and leadership of the organisation during a challenging transition period.
The New Zealand Football Executive Committee (ExCo) completed a transparent recruitment process which was conducted with the support of a highly-regarded sports recruitment agency.
Mr Pragnell becomes the ninth Chief Executive Officer of NZ Football in the history of the organisation (a title which was introduced in 1989 when Noel Robinson was the first CEO).
He was excited about the opportunity to lead one of New Zealand’s prominent sports organisations.
“It is a real honour and privilege to be named as the New Zealand Football Chief Executive,” said Mr Pragnell. “I have thoroughly enjoyed the past 10 months at New Zealand Football as we have worked through a time of transition. I’d like to thank all of our staff for their hard work in this time and I’d also like to acknowledge the support of many of our key stakeholders – the Federations, the PFA, the National League Clubs, the Referees Association, Oceania Football Confederation and FIFA – as we got the organisation back on track.
“It has been challenging at times, but we are in a good position now to move the sport forward. It is a hugely exciting time for our sport with many of our national teams on the world stage and the community game still growing in many key areas. We will look to build on this foundation throughout 2019, which is an important year as we refresh the strategic direction of the organisation.”
New Zealand Football President Johanna Wood was delighted to appoint Mr Pragnell as the CEO.
“Andrew is a talented individual, who brings to the CEO role an understanding of the local footballing landscape,” said Mrs Wood, who earlier this year was elected to the FIFA Council.
“He is a strategic, critical and reflective thinker who will take NZF forward. In the interim role he was asked to build relationships with our partners while at the same time commencing the implementation of the Muir Report recommendations. The NZF Executive Committee is excited to have Andrew on board.”
In the past 10 months under Mr Pragnell’s leadership, New Zealand Football has made good progress towards implementing all of the 22 recommendations of the Muir Report.
Specifically, the Football Ferns cultural rebuild has gone from strength to strength and as part of the cultural rebuild our other international teams are encouraged to adopt aspects of this work as appropriate.
The NZF ExCo has also worked hard to strengthen the relationships with key stakeholders at both the local and international level.
Mr Pragnell came to New Zealand Football after being the Manager of the Partnerships Team at Sport New Zealand and most recently served as the organisation’s Acting General Manager of the Partnerships and Communications unit.
He previously held leadership roles with Auckland Council and the Human Rights Commission, and lectured in Sport Management at AUT.
Mr Pragnell is looking forward to continuing the work with the New Zealand Football Executive Committee and the New Zealand Football Senior Management Team. He begins in the role immediately.
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