SMAANZ Distinguished Service Award Winner - Professor Lesley Ferkins

It is with great pleasure the SMAANZ Board announces Professor Lesley Ferkins as the SMAANZ Distinguished Service Award winner. The award will be presented at the 2022 SMAANZ Conference Dinner in Melbourne in December.

Professor Ferkins is currently a Professor of Sport Leadership and Governance at Auckland University of Technology, having worked across four institutions in Australia and New Zealand including Massey University, UNITEC and Deakin University. Lesley has previously served for eight years as a SMAANZ Board member, Vice President and President as well as held roles as an Editorial Board member and Associate Editor with Sport Management Review over the last decade. Lesley has also been a SMAANZ Conference chair, Industry Day chair and a regular attendee and contributor at most SMAANZ conferences since 1995.

In addition to valued and sustained service contributions to SMAANZ, her academic scholarship includes an excellent track record of peer-reviewed journal authorship as well as editorship and authorship of books and chapters in the areas of governance, strategy, and leadership. The award also acknowledges her considerable mentorship and supervision of PhD and Masters candidates, commitment to teaching excellence and industry leadership in sport governance and related areas. These include recent contributions with the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC), Women in Sport Leadership Academy/Wahine Toa, NZOC Women in Sport Leadership Academy and Sport New Zealand, among others.

In announcing the award, SMAANZ President, Associate Professor Adam Karg noted:

We are delighted to see Lesley recognised for her outstanding and ongoing contributions to SMAANZ and the sport management community in Australia and New Zealand. Lesley's leadership via SMAANZ board roles and editorial roles with Sport Management Review, on top of her scholarship, mentoring contributions and strong and meaningful industry impact are exemplary and make her a well deserving recipient of the award. Standing out in her nomination was the high regard for not only her academic work, but also for her leadership and impact on industry and students, and clear demonstration through her contributions of how academic work can make a difference. We look forward to Lesley's continuing involvement with the SMAANZ community.

Professor Ferkins, was excited to accept the award:

I am delighted to receive this award and am incredibly grateful to and for the SMAANZ Community. Over the years I have been able to build the best collegial connections thanks to the SMAANZ network. In this weird old post pandemic world, these kinds of connections seem even more special. I'm very much looking forward to SMAANZ in Melbourne this month.

 Professor Ferkins becomes the eighth winner of the SMAANZ Distinguished Service award. See the full list of winners here. Lesley was nominated for the award, with the nomination enthusiastically supported by letters from members of the SMAANZ community based locally and internationally. The nomination was then ratified by the SMAANZ board. We thank the nominators and those who provided letters of support for this award round.

Please join us in congratulating Lesley and we look forward to the formal presentation in December.

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4 Dec
Deakin University, VIC