Trustees​​​​​​​

Founding Trustees
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Sir Graeme Avery

Founding Trustee and Interim Chair

Sir Graeme has over 50 years experience of working in sport and health – at community, national and international levels.

He was involved in the founding and development of the AUT Millennium Institute of Sport & Health on the North Shore of Auckland in 2000. Now the founding in 2016 and development, for the benefit of the whole Hawke’s Bay region, of a scaled down version EIT Institute of Sport & Health at Mitre 10 Park in Hastings.

Sir Graeme is passionate about helping people to become the best they can be in health and wellbeing and sports performance.

Bruce Mactaggart

Founding Trustee 

Bruce has a long involvement in many community projects and is a Founding Trustee of HBCFCT.

Originally from Australia, he has an extensive background in marketing, tourism, major events and venue management and is perhaps best known in New Zealand for having constructed, owned and operated Spark Arena in Auckland.

He has been involved in initiating and delivering many major sporting and cultural events around the world including the acclaimed arena touring show based on the BBC’s ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’.

Dr Helen Ryan-Stewart

Trustee

Helen is the Executive Dean for EIT’s Faculty of Education, Humanities and Health Science, which includes the School of Health and Sport Science, and part of her portfolio includes responsibility for EIT’s Research and Innovation Centre.

Helen is a sport and exercise scientist, with a PhD focusing on the influence of body composition on responses to resistance training. Helen is also an internationally recognised anthropometry educator and a BASES-accredited sport and exercise scientist. Helen has provided sports science support to various elite and sub-elite athletes in the United Kingdom and New Zealand. Helen continues to contribute to applied sports science work and research through projects at EIT.

Helen moved to Hawke’s Bay with her family in 2022 after 14 years at the University of Winchester in the south of England. Her family are particularly enjoying access to the many sports Hawke’s Bay has on offer, and you’ll often find Helen taking her children all over the area to compete in various sports.

Mark Knofflock

Trustee

Mark is a Director a Nexia Hawkes Bay Limited a local business advisory and accounting firm. He has over 20 years of accounting/finance experience working across many industries and sits on several advisory boards for his clients at Nexia.

He moved to the Hawkes Bay in 2015 after 10 years working overseas in the financial services sector in Dublin, London, and Sydney.

Mark is very involved with is daughters sporting activities which includes swimming with the Heretaunga Sundevils Swimming Club at the Aquatic Centre.  

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