One woman, two chairs at top of NZ sport

Standing on the edge of Suzie Bates Oval in Dunedin, Diana Puketapu-Lyndon clutches a black cap emblazoned with a golden fern and the number 300.

She’s thrilled that her first job as chair of New Zealand Cricket is to present White Ferns legend Suzie Bates with the cap commemorating 300 appearances on cricket’s world stage – only the third woman globally to do so.

“It’s a privilege that this is my first official duty,” Puketapu-Lyndon says, at the ground renamed in Bates’ honour on Tuesday, when the White Ferns played their second T20 against Pakistan. Back-to-back losses failed to take the gloss off Bates’ day.

“This woman is a legend and she’s a local legend here in Otago, too.  She can’t go anywhere around here without being asked to have her photo taken.”

Puketapu-Lyndon doesn’t share that same celebrity recognition, and for that, she’s most likely grateful. Yet she’s just become one of the most powerful women in New Zealand sport, at the head of two of our largest sporting organisations.

A year ago, the former America’s Cup chief financial officer took on the role as chair of the New Zealand Olympic Committee.

Last month, while Puketapu-Lyndon was running the New York Marathon alongside her daughter, it was announced she would take over the chair of NZ Cricket from former Black Cap Martin Snedden.

She happens to be the first woman and first Māori to chair both boards, but she refuses to get caught up in “the hype of it all”.

“It may be true and it’s nice, and I’m definitely celebrating women moving forward in that space,” Puketapu-Lyndon, of Ngāti Porou whakapapa, says. “But from my perspective, I’m just making sure I do the best job I can in each role and bringing that each time.”

Snedden, who stepped down from the chair a year early to help Puketapu-Lyndon settle into the role, says to frame her appointment with a diversity lens would do her a disservice.

“It’s a positive sign that NZC’s new leader is female and Māori, but she has been unanimously appointed by our board – first into the deputy role and then as chair – entirely off the back of her own proven governance and personal qualities,” he says. “That’s underpinned by six years as an NZC director, developing an in-depth understanding of our sport and our business.”

Puketapu-Lyndon has made her career as a director on multiple governance boards around the country, but she’s had to “intentionally decrease” her portfolio to manage both national chair roles.

When I ask her how testing it is to balance the boards of both cricket and Olympic sports, she laughs.

“It’s an interesting space to hold,” she admits. “I’ve only been doing it for a couple of weeks so maybe ask me again in a year, after the Paris Olympics.

“The reality is you have to clear some space, which I’m doing. But there are so many people out there doing so many big things, while holding down fulltime jobs, having families and doing all the things they want to do. And I guess I’m just one of them.

“Though I’m quite fortunate I don’t have a full-time job. My job has been in governance, and I have the passion and the ability to be flexible around my schedule.

“And I take it all in my stride. I don’t mean to make it sound flippant, but all I can do is just bring myself to those situations.”

There’s no question, Puketapu-Lyndon brings a wealth of business and financial experience to both organisations. A chartered accountant, who grew up on a kiwifruit orchard in Te Puke, she’s been a director of the Ngāti Porou Holding Company, the Napier Port and she chaired Manawanui, which provides support to people with disabilities.

She’s also been heavily involved with sport – as CFO of two America’s Cup campaigns (BMW Oracle Racing and Team Origin), and on the boards of North Harbour Netball, Auckland Football and the World Masters Games.

Although she’s only ever played cricket socially and cheered on her kids from the edges of the oval, Puketapu-Lyndon has become fully absorbed in the game since she joined the NZ Cricket board six years ago.

It’s been a “natural progression”, she says, for the sport to now have both a female chair and a female president, in former White Fern and Black Stick Lesley Murdoch (who succeeded another woman, Debbie Hockley).

“It’s exciting to be part of an organisation that’s so progressive,” Puketapu-Lyndon says. “New Zealand Cricket has been quite an exemplar for women’s sport in recent times – both for women playing our sport and for women in governance roles. It was only a matter of time before they had both a female chair and president.”

But she knows it hasn’t always been that rosy. Puketapu-Lyndon was asked to take part in Sarah Beaman’s research into the sorry state of women’s cricket in New Zealand in 2016, as a woman involved in sport – she was on the board of the NZOC at the time – and as a mum of young cricketers (her children – “now in their 20s and one teenager” – no longer play the sport).

“I watched that report come out and watched where New Zealand Cricket took it, and I was just so impressed by it. They were actually taking note and making changes – and it felt like something I wanted to be part of,” she says. That led to her putting her name forward for the NZ Cricket board.

“There’s been a lot of commitment not only to women in cricket, but making cricket a game for all New Zealanders. So we’re focusing on those two things… among others.”

Puketapu-Lyndon is “hugely proud” to be Māori and has made it her personal mission to make both NZ Cricket and the NZOC more bicultural.

“At NZOC, we’ve embraced Te Ao Māori and tikanga Māori into our New Zealand team on the world stage, and it’s my goal to ensure that it’s continued to be lived by our team, and also by our organisation on a day-to-day basis,” she says. They’ve recently taken on broadcaster Oriini Kaipara as their Pouwhiringa Māori culture lead.

Attracting more young Māori and Pasifika to play cricket has been part of her focus over the last five years.

“We have a committee on our board set up to focus on cricket being a game for all New Zealanders. One of the ways we focus on that is to take our game to Māori,” she says.

“Now we’re seeing an emergence of pathways in New Zealand cricket, which started with our Māori schools teams, and this year we had our first national wāhine Māori and tāne Māori tournaments. It was really great to see players staying on marae, connecting with their culture and whakapapa.”

Next month, the first Aotearoa Māori women’s cricket team will play in the Pacific Cup tournament in Tāmaki Makaurau, coached by former White Ferns captain Maia Lewis.

“It’s about seeing Māori play at these elite levels, especially in the most Pasifika-populated city in the world. If you don’t see it, you can’t be it,” Puketapu-Lyndon says. “We’re lucky to have a board who are very keen to explore ways to attract a broader section of Aotearoa to our game.”

The opportunity for Puketapu-Lyndon to become NZ Cricket’s chair came earlier than expected, when Snedden decided to stand down sooner to give her a smooth transition into the role.

“It shows the mana of the man,” she says. “The class that Martin brings, wanting to impart his knowledge to others.”

The time was right, Snedden says, for a new era in leadership, with a new CEO, Scott Weenink, and a new member on the ICC Board, Roger Twose.  And Puketapu-Lyndon was the perfect person to sit at the head of the boardroom table.

“Her governance experience is wide-ranging – sport, not-for-profit, and corporate – and in the boardroom, she is well-prepared, focused and courageous. Her personal qualities build on those governance skills,” he says.

“She’s good at relationships, a good listener who reflects on the views of others; she’s caring and team orientated.”

Puketapu-Lyndon says she often has a chuckle around the board table with Snedden, reminding him “the last time cricket was on free-to-air TV was when I was a girl and he was playing for the Black Caps… He just rolls his eyes.”

She can’t foresee any potential conflict of interest between her two roles, although there is some crossover – women’s T20 cricket is played at the Commonwealth Games and the sport will return to the Olympic realm after 128 years, at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

“I probably won’t be on either board by then, so I’ll be watching cricket at the Olympics on TV,” she says.  “I can’t see there being any issues and if there was, I would simply recuse myself from the discussion.”