Advocacy & Speaking
Rachel is an established social equity advocate internationally and in Aotearoa New Zealand. She regularly speaks at events worldwide, and provides opinion in media. She is also a champion for SportNXT each year, on behalf of the Victorian State Government. Earlier this year she led a delegation of 5x NZ leaders to Melbourne and moderated the ‘women in sport’ panel in 2023. She will lead another NZ sport delegation in 2025.
Click here to watch a 10-min interview with Rachel, talking about SportNXT on UN International Women’s Day 2023.
Click here to listen to Rachel kick-start a talkback discussion on Sportstalk with D’Arcy Waldegrave on NewstalkZB.
Rachel undertakes a range of paid and unpaid engagements as a speaker, moderator and MC. She takes commissions and designs bespoke sessions for corporates, agencies and charities internationally and in Aotearoa New Zealand, covering a variety of key topics including:
Her leadership journey (as a women in sport; a women in business; an executive with start-up knowledge)
The need for advancement of equity in sport (incl women and girls, disabled people, indigenous peoples, and more)
Upcoming Events
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Women in Sport Aotearoa (WISPA) Fundraiser
From 6pm, Saturday 11 May 2024, Palmerston North, New Zealand
Rachel has been invited to host a table at this fantastic fundraising dinner and auction, being staged by John Turkington Forestry to raise funds for WISPA. The good and the great of the women in sport movement will be in attendance from all over New Zealand: it promises to be an outstanding night, full of great stories, great chat, and great fun. All proceeds raised from ticket sales and the auction will go toward helping WISPA continue its work to gain equity of opportunity for women and girls to participate, compete and build careers in play, active recreation and sport in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Past Events
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United Nations NGO Committee on the Status of Women (NGO CSW/NY) Parallel Event
7.30am - 9.00am NZT, 21 March 2024.
This event ran alongside the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
Rachel joined an intensive 90min virtual discussion about the impact of strong policy on the protection and growth of women and girls' involvement in and access to sport and physical activity with Sarah Axelson, VP of Advocacy at the Women's Sports Foundation - USA ; Payoshni Mitra, Humans of Sport - Europe; and Allison Sandmeyer-Graves, CEO at Canadian Women & Sport.
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IEEE Women in Engineering International Leadership Summit
12.00 - 12.30pm NZT, 11 December 2023 in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is the world’s largest technical professional organisation dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. The ICCE WIE Leadership Summit fosters networking, mentorship and collaboration.
Rachel gave a keynote discussing her leadership journey and explained the advancement made for women in sport.
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NZEA Conference, Eventing the Future
From 9.45am NZT, 22 August 2023 in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand
Eventing the Future is the pinnacle event for those in the NZ events industry.
Rachel was joined by CEO of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup, Andrea Nelson; Tournament Director of the Rugby World Cup 2021, Michelle Hooper; and Chief Operating Officer of the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 to discuss the “big 4” women’s sports events held in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2022 and 2023. They discussed the various challenges, and how these were successfully overcome.
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Women in Leadership Summit 2023
From 2pm NZST, 15 June 2023 in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand
WIL is the largest annual gathering of its kind in Aotearoa. It brings emerging and established female leaders together, showcasing their journeys as they strive to make their mark in business.
Rachel designed and delivered a bespoke session for around 40 leaders. Using a series of examples and metaphors featuring the mighty Black Ferns, the group explored 1) how to become an elite player (leader) in your organisation, and 2) how you can contribute to a World Champion team.
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SportNXT 2023
From 11am AEDT, 28 March 2023 in Melbourne, Australia
SportNXT is an innovative sports thought leadership summit hosted annually to gather global leaders from all sectors of sport to create, share and connect.
This year Rachel moderated the ‘women in sport’ panel, featuring NRL Commissioner, Kate Jones; CEO of Cricket Australia, Nick Hockley; Head of women’s Football at Football Australia, Sarah Walsh; and Amanda Laing, Chief Commercial & Content Officer at Foxtel Group. She also led a delegation of 5x kiwi sports leaders over to the event with Global Victoria.
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Australian Rural Leadership Program (ARLP) Dialogue
From 5pm NZST, 16 March 2023 in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand
ARLP is a 15-month leadership development course for individuals committed and ready to respond to regional, rural and remote Australia’s most complex challenges and biggest opportunities.
The Australian Consul General & Senior Trade Commissioner for NZ & Pacific asked Rachel to share her leadership journey and talk about the power of diversity and inclusivity in rural sport.
