Chief people officer Toni Grimshaw explains how a governance overhaul reshaped New Zealand Rugby's strategy and leadership
New Zealand Rugby (NZR) has all but rebuilt its board and executive over the past 18 months, following a 2025 governance review that replaced the organisation's representative board with a more modern and independent structure.
Toni Grimshaw, chief people, safety and wellbeing officer at NZR, has been at the centre of that reset – working alongside new board chair David Kirk and NZR Board People committee chair, Julia Raue to rebuild the executive team almost from scratch.
"It has been quite a ride," Grimshaw said of the process. "New Zealand rugby went through quite a significant governance review and as a result, we put in place an entirely new board, strategy and leadership structure."
A governance overhaul reshapes the executive team
The review reflected the scale of change already under way at NZR, Grimshaw said, as the organisation moved from a representative model – with board seats tied to regional provincial unions – to a more independent board suited to a larger, global and more commercially complex organisation.
NZR had also previously operated as two separate entities, NZR and NZR Commercial, each with its own strategy and chief executive.
"One of the first things the Board wanted us to do was bring the two organisations back into one organisation and reset our leadership structure and strategy," Grimshaw said. "So rather than having two individual strategies, we have one whole-of-game strategy where we look at not just the organisation, but where we want the rugby system in New Zealand to be."
That reset culminated in May 2026, when the NZR board confirmed Steve Lancaster – previously the organisation's general manager, community rugby – as permanent chief executive, having led the organisation on an interim basis since October 2025.
Grimshaw said the scale of change across NZR's executive team over the period had been significant. "I'd say almost a complete reset, I think it's probably fair to say," she said. "I was heavily involved in that and have spent a lot of time with the board as we set up the organisation for the future."
Grimshaw recalled an early conversation with Kirk that framed the mandate for the people function and for the rebuild.
"In the first conversation I had with David Kirk as the chair of the board, he looked at me and he said, ‘Toni, I want to make sure that we are seen as the leading sports administrator globally. I want us to be so good that other sporting organisations come to us and steal our people because they're seen as the best,’ and that’s a mandate that really excites me as a CPO”
Why HR sat at the centre of the reset
Grimshaw said HR's proximity to NZR's board and chief executive during the reset reflected a broader principle she believes applies to any organisation navigating major change.
"I think we have to be working with our CEOs and boards because we have the context, we know the organisation, we know the people, we know the capability and we need to have a good grasp of the organisational context and the strategy," she said. "And I think the more we understand the business context, the more effective we can be."
She drew a parallel with the standards NZR applies to its players. "I think particularly in a high-performance environment like ours, we've got to be pretty uncompromising around our standards, and we really do look for high performance and excellence from all of our people," Grimshaw said.
"If a player goes out and has a bad day, they're going to come back with their coach and sit down and get some pretty robust feedback – the same goes internally as we work towards our refreshed strategy."
Building capability for a more global game
Grimshaw said the change had also presented opportunities for growth in capability, particularly in NZR's growing commercial operation, where the organisation is competing for partners against major international sports and entertainment brands despite New Zealand's comparatively small population base.
"We have to really think quite carefully about how we show up in different markets and how we present ourselves to partners," she said, adding that NZR was seeking commercial leaders who combine global marketing experience with what she described as an authentically New Zealand approach – "winning with mana."
Alongside the executive changes, NZR has created and recruited for two new roles: a chief rugby officer (CRO), Michael Collins, who was appointed in June 2026, and a high-performance director, Don Tricker, who was appointed in May 2026.
Grimshaw is currently acting as executive lead of the rugby delivery group until the CRO starts.
"It's been a really exciting opportunity for me, after standing up the structure, to step out of my people and safety role and play such a key role in setting this new group up for success against our new whole-of-game strategy for rugby in New Zealand" she said.
Toni’s involvement in NZR’s restructure, coupled with her current secondment, shows how HR expertise can strengthen and shape leadership well beyond traditional people portfolios.
For related coverage, HRD New Zealand previously reported on New Zealand Rugby's HR team is reshaping player safety practices, while separate analysis has examined how New Zealand leaders can effectively lead through change and why many leaders remain unprepared to manage major change.
