Thompson moves to health and fitness

BikeNZ announced today that chief executive Rodger Thompson has resigned from his role to move to the private sector to take a new chief executive role with the New Zealand Institute of Health and Fitness (NZIHF).

In making the announcement, BikeNZ Chairman, Arthur Klap, praised Thompson for the progress BikeNZ has made during his tenure.

“Rodger has done a wonderful job at BikeNZ through what has been a challenging period bringing five national cycling organisations together and generating unprecedented levels of investment into cycling,” said Klap. “The recent successes at Beijing are partly the result of the stable and positive environment that Rodger has helped create within the high performance programme. However, I understand his desire to move to the private sector, to an opportunity that will continue his career development. I only hope he decides to stay involved in the sector, allowing for his 13 years experience in the sport and recreation sector, both here [New Zealand] and in Britain”.

Thompson said that when he came to BikeNZ, it was the challenge that attracted him to the role.

“Leading BikeNZ has been exciting and rewarding, and I look back with real satisfaction at what has been achieved during my time and the role we’ve [BikeNZ] played as one of the contributors to the current growth in cycling”, said Thompson. “It really has been a privilege working with the key players from the different cycling codes, the industry, Gaming Trusts and SPARC, and leaders like Arthur, John Struthers [Sheppard Industries] and John Mote [Mountain Bike NZ]”.

“We have built a very capable team at BikeNZ that has real talent and potential. It is now the right time to move on to a new challenge and to develop my career in a more commercial role”.

Facts:
BikeNZ is the national umbrella organisation established in July 2003 to bring together six cycling and biking organisations.
BikeNZ’s unique remit covers all aspects of cycling: everyday, recreational and competitive (B MX, mountain biking, road and track cycling).
As BikeNZ’s first chief executive, Thompson guided the organisation through its establishment phase, which has seen cycling move from having three full-time cycling roles in 2003 to 22 in 2008 and investment into BikeNZ programmes growing from $1.1M (2003) to $5.4M (2008).
As part of a recent review of BikeNZ’s organisational structure, undertaken with support from SPARC, two key outcomes were that a) BikeNZ’s remit should continue to be ‘all things cycling’, and b) BikeNZ will now become the lead national cycling organisation.