Equestrian Sports New Zealand (ESNZ) welcomes two new members to its board who bring with them digital and leadership expertise at a critical time for the organisation.

As appointed members, Ana Sever and Hannah Walton join the other eight board members who oversee the majority of horse sports in New Zealand from novice through to Olympic level, in conjunction with its five discipline bodies.

“We are excited to welcome Ana and Hannah with their valuable expertise and backgrounds to our board table,” said ESNZ board chair Lynda Clark. “ESNZ, like all national sports organisations, is having to proactively confront the multiple challenges of successfully delivering a sport that provides accessible pathways from grassroots through to Olympic level in 2020 and beyond. Hannah and Ana both have proven experience in leading large-scale customer focused digital programmes which will greatly benefit the organisation.”

Ana Sever has a career-long record of successful transformation and growth of public and private sector business using digital technology. Her governance objectives are focused on leveraging her executive experience to advise and lead organisations to take a proactive approach to disruption and successfully optimise benefit from their digital investment. She brings to ESNZ proven governance experience in innovation, commercialising intellectual property and overseeing technology management delivery and performance, ensuring that risks associated with transformation projects and technology use are mitigated and planned outcomes are achieved. Ana picked up her love for horses from her grandmother whose parents bred Lipizzaner horses in Croatia.

Hannah Walton was a director at Connect 8 Ltd, a network infrastructure construction company and is currently Head of Digital at Metlifecare where she is responsible for the development and implementation of Metlifecare’s digital strategy and roadmap to meet changing customer needs and expectations. Hannah has significant executive experience at Spark where she was responsible for leading large scale network investment programmes; driving business transformation through simplification, automation and digitisation and leading IT product delivery improvements and cultural change through the introduction of Agile Ways of Working. She has been riding for over forty years and is particularly interested in dressage.

“The appointment of Hannah and Ana at this time in ESNZ’s long and proud seventy years of operation is timely and exciting,” said Lynda Clark. “We expect their fresh perspectives will bring a new approach to sustaining the sport while acknowledging and retaining the vital contribution and strong values of our volunteers and members.”

Contact: Lynda Clark, ESNZ Board Chair – 027 432 3286; [email protected]

 

www.nzequestrian.org.nz

Hannah Walton

Ana Sever