Experienced Administrator Richard Griffiths Joins Hockey NSW Senior Leadership Team

Hockey NSW is excited to announce the appointment of experienced sports administrator Richard Griffiths as the new General Manager Government Relations & Business Development, to the Senior Leadership team.

Griffiths joins the organisation with over 30 years’ experience as a sports executive across a number of different States and sports within Australia.

Most notably, Griffiths headed up AFL Queensland as Chief Executive Officer for over fifteen years before moving to NSW in 2011 to take up the role of Chief Operating Officer at the GWS Giants.

During his time with the Giants, he was instrumental in laying the solid foundations for the Western Sydney Club, as well as being entrusted with the task of establishing the AFLW team. He worked closely with Netball NSW to establish the GIANTS Netball team in the Suncorp Super Netball Series.

Since his departure from the GWS Giants in 2018, Griffiths has consulted to a variety of sporting organisations on change management, governance reform and people and culture. More recently, has held senior management positions with Football Queensland, and served as the Chief Executive Officer of Squash NSW.

He holds a Masters in Business Administration and has also served as Chairman of the Sports Federation of Queensland and the Hawkesbury Community Media Organisation.

Hockey NSW CEO Emma Highwood is thrilled to have Richard on board and believes he will bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to hockey.

“To have someone of Richard’s calibre join our staff is a real coup for our sport and I’m looking forward to working with him on growing our footprint throughout NSW,” said Highwood.

“Richard has strong background in Government Relations across a number of sports, combined with strong commercial experience and background.”

Griffiths is looking forward to joining the Hockey NSW team and getting down to business.

“I’m excited to be joining Hockey NSW in this new role, and hope that I can bring a lot of value to the sport with my background and experience,” said Griffiths.

The role of General Manager Government Relations and Business Development will be part of the new Senior leadership team reporting directly to the CEO.

Leading the overall strategy to increase sustainable revenue growth and diversification through strong engagement with government and innovative business development strategies.

The role will set the strategy, and oversee delivery through operational areas including Events, Marketing and Communication, Commercial Partnerships, Government Partnerships, and the NSW Pride in the Hockey One League.