DAWSON Elected As First Ever Woman President OF YNZ

Yachting New Zealand has elected Jan DAWSON as its first ever woman President at its 2007 AGM held in Nelson.

Jan DAWSON, successful keelboat racer and Chairman of KPMG New Zealand, was elected as President, taking over from Olympic medallist Rex SELLERS, who was not seeking re-election.

Mike COUPE of Wellington is the only new director elected to the Board with Jim MURDOCH of Kerikeri being re-elected, and Ralph ROBERTS of North Shore moving from an appointed director position to an elected director.

Speaking after her election, DAWSON said, “I am very proud to have been elected as your President at the recent AGM in Nelson and I look forward to continue working with the Board to ensure Yachting New Zealand delivers value to the wider constituency of yacht club and class association members.”

Looking towards her goals as President, she said, “Our first challenge is to maintain the momentum we have on the Olympic programme through to 2008 to achieve our goal of two Olympic medals at Beijing and three in 2012 in London. I believe that the structures and people we have on board will give us the results we want in this area.

“However, while Olympic medals are fundamentally important, especially to our funding streams, we also need to recognize equally excellence in the other parts of yachting – the keelboat classes, match racing and involvement of our race officials and umpires in world events. Without these other parts it would be impossible to run an Olympic or high performance programme.

“The second challenge we have is to ensure that we are relevant to all the members of our participating clubs and associations, whether they are racing, cruising or launch members. In some instances it is a question of communication of our current activities such as lobbying on Resource Management issues but there are areas where we, in conjunction with the clubs, may be able to deliver more value to all members. This will be a focus for the coming year.”

Yachting New Zealand – www.yachtingnz.org.nz  

ISAF Women’s Sailing microsite – www.sailing.org/women