Martin Snedden is a highly experienced CEO who has vast experience in the business of sport, having held roles as CEO of Rugby World Cup 2011, Duco Promotions and Tourism Association NZ, as well as being a director of the World Masters Games 2017.
Martin’s background in the sporting world, started when he played cricket for New Zealand BLACKCAPS between 1980 and 1990, playing 25 tests and 93 one day internationals. Since then, Martin has worked on numerous large scale sporting projects in New Zealand.
Current work
Martin is the NZ Cricket board chair and board director International Cricket Council. He also currently holds positions as chair of Heart of the City, and Destination Auckland, is a director on the board of Women in Sport Aotearoa, and a trustee of the Cricketers’ Hardship Trust. Prior to becoming the Chairman, Martin had the role of consultant lead at New Zealand Cricket for the One Cricket project, a three-year initiative aimed at reviewing and improving the delivery of cricket throughout the country.
Background
Between 2001 and 2007, Martin headed up NZC during a tumultuous period punctuated by issues relating to terrorism, politics and player contract negotiations; a period where the BLACKCAPS consistently ranked high in both tests and one day internationals. He led the successful joint NZC / Cricket Australia bid for the rights to host Cricket World Cup 2015.
Between 2007 and 2011, he was CEO of Rugby New Zealand 2011 Ltd, the company responsible for staging the extremely successful Rugby World Cup 2011. His book, a personal account of this RWC experience, A Stadium of Four Million was published in 2012.
Throughout 2014, as a director of the International Cricket Council (ICC), Martin was closely involved in the ICC’s reorganisation of the governance of international cricket and the re-shaping of cricket's Future Tours program.
As CEO of the Tourism Industry Association, he led our tourism industry through the creation of 'Tourism 2025', a framework to provide New Zealand's number two-ranked export earning industry with a confident sense of strategic direction through the next decade.
During Martin’s time as CEO of Duco Promotions, their strong event portfolio included the Dick Smith NRL Auckland Nines and the KFC Fight For Life as well as management of New Zealand's boxing star, Joseph Parker.
Speaking work
Martin’s specialty is leadership including breaking through barriers to success, change management, talent development, leading member associations, risk management, strategic storytelling and brand alignment, and team building and team culture.
Our delegates really enjoyed Martin’s relaxed style of presentation and his stories about his cricket days. ... keep reading Galvanizers Association
Martin has a very good corporate background and was excellent at weaving in the key messages we gave him before hand. Very personable and very easy to work with. He was excellent and worth every penny.
Martin provided an excellent speech and had the audience enthralled with his story presented in a relaxed, informal manner. He incorporated the theme for the evening, ‘Strength through Partnership’ very well into his speech. He showed his local knowledge of the area, which gained rapport with the audience. It was refreshing to have a person of his calibre talk about an event, rather than himself. We have had a lot of very positive feedback from people who attended and each one thoroughly enjoyed the evening.
With a topic which can be very heavy and emotionally draining, Martin closed the conference on a high. I was very impressed by his story telling skills and his ability to reach out to the audience and draw them into his world. As a speaker he is a dream to work with and I’d like to thank him for his efforts at this conference
Martin was wonderful. The audience was largely made up of females who might not necessarily respond well to a presentation on rugby, but he made it about much more than that and it appealed to everyone in the room, whether they were senior or junior, in marketing or finance. A perfect blend of humour, storytelling, and useful take away advice.
Martin did a great job preparing for our event. Getting to know our group and its intricacies can be an interesting task. Martin was professional throughout the entire process.
NZIOB have received excellent feedback following the event the next day - very engaging and excellent speaker at our Charitable Education Event held in Christchurch. Would recommend Martin Snedden to anyone else that is looking for Business and/or Sporting Leadership focus. Excellent stories provided.
