Northern Districts Cricket are pleased to welcome Paul Heath and Richard Riley to the board of directors.

Both cricket lovers, they bring a wealth of commercial and administrative experience to ND.

In another new appointment, Michelle Hollands replaced Martin Bradley as board chair, who is stepping down after five years service. Martin will continue to sit as a member of the board as well as Fraser Lellman, who was re-elected.

Making way for Paul and Richard on the board are Brian King and Mark Keaney, who have both stepped-down from their roles. Brian and Mark have been fantastic board members, contributing to a great deal throughout their respective tenures and ND would like to thank them for their efforts.

Find out the interesting backgrounds of our new appointments below:

Michelle Hollands, Chair:

Michelle's involvement in the sports sector spans a wide variety of sports and began as a participant in many sports including cricket before choosing to focus on the sport of hockey where she represented New Zealand in both the Manchester and Melbourne Commonwealth Games and the Sydney Olympics. Following retirement from international sport Michelle spent 15 years as an independent consultant working closely with some of New Zealand's leading companies to guide and facilitate the development and delivery of market-led strategies. A current General Manager at Sport Waikato, Michelle brings a breadth of expertise and knowledge to the role of Chair with Northern Districts having previously been the Independent Chair of Badminton New Zealand and the current Chair of the Rototuna Indoor Recreation Centre (the Peak). Michelle has been on the board of Northern Districts since 2016 and is a Chartered Director with the Institute of Directors.

Paul Heath:

Paul Heath has had a lifelong passion for cricket. Although, by his own admission, his playing skills were limited, he became involved in cricket administration at a young age. Between the age of 22 and 24 he was club captain and chairman of the Howick-Pakuranga Cricket Club in Auckland during a time when the club engaged its first overseas professional player, Clive Radley. After moving to Hamilton in 1981, Paul continued to play for both Old Boys' and Te Rapa but due to work commitments he was unable to continue his interest in administration. Having completed a career including partnership in the Hamilton firm of solicitors Stace Hammond Grace & Partners, practicing as a QC in Hamilton and 16 years as a High Court Judge, Paul has returned to the private sector. He has quickly renewed his interest in cricket administration and is looking forward to working with the board to promote the interests of all involved in cricket in the Northern Districts region.

Richard Riley:

Like many, Richard's love of cricket began in the backyard at a very early age. This led to an 18-season run for a variety of clubs in Yorkshire's minor leagues before finishing-up in the Aberdeenshire league. Starting out as an erratic left-arm quick who could "bat...a bit", following shoulder injury, he developed into a self-proclaimed moderately successful right-arm medium seamer and a doggedly boring opening bat.

Shortly after his final over in Scotland, Richard's profession drew him south to embark on a successful commercial and Executive Management career. In London, he met his wife Deahnn and the pair came to Auckland in 2004.

Richard has led a variety of major infrastructure projects in the UK and New Zealand. Currently Chief Operation Officer at Hamilton's Ultrafast Fibre, Richard is 7 years into the initiative which delivers ultra-fast fibre broadband access to most of our central North Island communities. One of the key passions he finds in his COO role is his company's links to the community where he gets to invest his professional and personal leadership to achieve significant social, economic and inclusion outcomes; something he is now looking forward to augmenting through regional cricket, given the privilege of this governance role at Northern Districts.