Chief Executive Officer - Hockey Australia

Hockey Australia | Melbourne | Ongoing Contract Full-Time

Lead Hockey Australia’s most consequential decade.
Brisbane 2032 is six years away. A world-class Hockey Centre is under construction in Perth, the headquarters of a unique Centre of Excellence. A bold 2035 Strategic Direction is set. And Hockey Australia is looking for the leader to run toward all of it.

The Teams
Australian hockey is already among the most decorated sporting programs this country has produced. The Hockeyroos have won two World Cup titles and three Olympic gold medals, in Seoul 1988, Atlanta 1996, and Sydney 2000. The Kookaburras have spent 25 years in the global top three, won three World Cups, 15 Champions Trophies, and claimed Olympic gold in Athens 2004. Between them, the national teams have accumulated 13 Olympic and 17 World Cup medals.

The incoming CEO will inherit a high-performance culture with a genuine track record, and a mandate to re-ignite its next generation. Australian hockey can see more impactful sporting moments, more engaged fans, and more Australians connected to the sport.

The Moment
This is one of the most distinctive CEO mandates in Australian sport right now. It’s a role with genuine strategic clarity, a strong Board that has done the work, and a once-in-a-generation platform from which to build.

The Mandate
Reporting to the Hockey Australia Board, the Chief Executive Officer leads HA's three-year Strategic Plan and the pursuit of its 2035 Strategic Direction. The first year will see the new CEO perform towards three identified, interconnected priorities; years two and three (and beyond) will be co-designed. The 2026-2027 priorities are:

• New revenue and a resilient hockey enterprise: Drive growth in non-government revenue through new commercial partnerships, new assets, philanthropic models, and government investment. Lead and collaborate with stakeholders to harness “the Power of Many”, extending a workforce of 50 into a national ecosystem of members, athletes, alumni, volunteers and fans. Ensure continued high standards in risk management, budgeting and financial management, commercial orientation, and governance.
• Build a consumer business: Lead the most significant transformation in HA's identity, building a fan-based consumer business, a new consumer-facing hockey brand, and growing from a near 100,000 registered traditional field participants to one million customers by 2035.
• Consistently top three: Supercharge Australia’s high performance future by leading Hockey Australia’s next generation Centre of Excellence. Drive pathways and accelerate global high-performance standards across all formats including indoor, and position Australia to dominate globally and pointed towards the Olympics in Brisbane 2032. The Kookaburras and Hockeyroos are the pinnacle that Hockey Australia is judged by annually – success is crucial.

The incoming CEO will continue to champion and advance efforts to make the sport as inclusive as possible, with participation ensured for all genders, sexualities, ages and cultural backgrounds. Diversity is a competitive strength for hockey. Hockey Australia is committed to meaningful First Nations outcomes, and the organisation's Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan is active and its First Nations programs are embedded.

About You
You will have experience leading organisations of comparable scale and complexity with budget responsibility in the range of $20 million+.
You understand high performance sport and elite athlete programs, directly or through analogous environments. Critically, you are a proven senior executive with a track record of genuine transformation: structural change, new value creation and step-change results. You bring commercial acumen, experience building new revenue streams, and the stakeholder leadership to align and inspire a complex national ecosystem.
You are an outstanding public communicator, digitally literate, and sufficiently fluent in high-performance sport to lead the Consistently top three pillar with credibility.
You will have proven elite stakeholder engagement and influencing skills, to maintain and deepen HA's links to Member Associations, Hockey One, Australian Sports Commission, Federation of International Hockey, Oceania Hockey Federation, Australian Olympic Committee, Commonwealth Games Australia and all levels of government.
You empower your people to lead with confidence. You are emotionally intelligent, respectful of partnerships, values-anchored, and decisive under pressure. You understand that the Green and Gold Runway is already live and you bring the urgency the moment demands.

How to Apply
Candidate information: Please click on the "Additional Information" button to download a copy of the Candidate Information Pack.
Applications are managed exclusively by Derwent Search.
For a confidential discussion, please contact Emma Alberici on 0419 683 660 or email publicsector@derwentsearch.com.au quoting reference number: 34621.
To apply: Applications should include your curriculum vitae and a covering letter demonstrating your motivation and suitability by the due date.
Applications close: Sunday, 26th July 2026