SportWaitakereExcellenceAwards

About The Awards

The Trusts Sport Waitakere Excellence Awards are the premier sports awards for West Auckland. For over 20 years, Sport Waitākere has proudly hosted these awards which acknowledge the wonderful sporting achievements of West Auckland athletes and shines a light on those heroes who contribute to the sporting community behind the scenes. Previous winners include; Tuna Scanlon, Yvonne Willering, Bruce Maclaren, Michael Jones, Beatrice Famuina, Lauren Boyle, Mahe Drysdale and Tyla Nathan-Wong to name a few.

MARK CAMERON

Mark is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Bowls New Zealand, which he was first appointed as in April 2017. He brought with him to the role, his wide-spread administration background within New Zealand sport. Previously, Mark was also the Chief Executive of the Auckland Cricket Association, Chief Executive of the Northern Mystics Netball Franchise and the General Manager of the New Zealand Basketball League. This vast leadership experience also extends to positions outside of sport, with his current placement as the Chair on the Board for Hearing Dogs New Zealand.

SIMON WICKHAM

Simon's had several years’ experience on the Awards judging panel. He brings to the panel experience from his roles as Chair of the NZ Olympic Committee Selection Panel where he's been responsible for selecting every Commonwealth and Olympic Games team (summer and winter) since 2005. Simon's experience in the sports industry includes having been a Director on the Board of the New Zealand Olympic Committee, a board member of High-Performance Sport New Zealand and former Chair of Gymsports New Zealand. He was the Chief Executive of Yachting New Zealand from 2000-2005 and more locally was CEO of The Trusts Arena until taking up his present role as CEO of our principal sponsor, The Trusts. In 2018 Simon was recognised as a Laureate of the West Auckland Business Hall of Fame for his services to business and the community in West Auckland.

SUZANNE MCFADDEN

Suzanne has been an award-winning sports journalist for more than three decades. She spent 10 of those years on the NZ Herald sports desk, and was a freelance journalist before helping to start up the independent news website Newsroom.co.nz. She is currently editor of LockerRoom, a news site dedicated solely to women in sport. She is a life member of the NZ Sports Journalists Association and is on the nominations panel of the Halberg Awards for NZ sporting excellence. A wife and mum to two boys, she has called Waitakere home for 30 years.

YVONNE WILLERING

Yvonne has extensive experience in all areas of the sporting industry, with a history of both competing herself and coaching over the years. She played provincial netball from 1968-1985, and was a part of the Silver Ferns from 1974-1983, before furthering her contribution through coaching. As a coach, she has been involved with provincial netball, New Zealand under 21’s, New Zealand Young Internationals, the Silver Ferns, and even has ties to Fiji. In note of these many involvements, Yvonne has received the Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZOM) award, Service award Netball North Harbour, and is a Life Member of Netball New Zealand. Outside of sporting, Yvonne has also managed to obtain high successes in her career, with experience as a medical lab technologist and microbiologist, before going on to work as a netball director and on the coaching advisory panel for International Netball.