Board of Directors

The Netball Australia Board is responsible for the governance and strategic leadership of Australian netball. The Board comprises of three elected Directors and six Directors appointed by the Board. The Board meets at least six times each year, and works to guide netball’s future growth and to uphold the overall strategic vision of the organisation. The Chair is appointed by the Board.

LIZ ELLIS AO | CHAIR

Liz Ellis AO was a member of the national team from 1993 until 2007, including the last four years as Captain of the Origin Diamonds. She is the most capped Diamond, and is a member of the Netball Australia Hall of Fame, the Sports Australia Hall of Fame and is a Legend in the NSW Netball Hall of Fame.

Ms Ellis played in the 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2007 World Championships and the 1998 and 2002 Commonwealth Games. She was named Australian Netball's Most Valued Player on four occasions – 1996, 1998, 2002 and 2006. She became captain of the Sydney Swifts in 2000 and captained the team to the 2001, 2004, 2006 and 2007 premierships.

Director appointed April 2024

GABBI STUBBS | DEPUTY CHAIR

Gabbi is an executive strategist and business advisor with over 20 years of senior experience in media, technology, and digital transformation. She currently leads Product Strategy and Product Marketing for data management and AI solutions across APAC for Adobe.

Gabbi's experience extends from corporates to small business and start-ups working extensively through the Australian media industry, including at News Corp, Nine Entertainment Co and the ABC. She is a trusted, private sounding board for founders, C-suite executives and boards, and further advises and mentors students, women in business, social enterprises and start-ups spanning sport, media and advertising, data and analytics, AI, and the future of education, work and communities.

Gabbi is a Director of the Confident Girls Foundation, a member of Netball Australia’s Audit and Risk committee, and the Netball Australia board representative on the SOTG Digital Transformation Working Group.

Director appointed May 2021

VIVEK BHATIA I DIRECTOR

Vivek has over two decades of experience in financial services, technology, government and management consulting. He is an experienced chief executive, having led a number of complex businesses throughout his career. Vivek joined Link Group from QBE Insurance Group where he was Chief Executive Officer of their Australia Pacific division. Vivek joined QBE from Insurance and Care NSW where he was Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the NSW Government’s public finance corporation. Prior to this, he co-led the Asia-Pacific Restructuring and Transformation practice at McKinsey & Company and also previously held senior executive roles at Wesfarmers Insurance, including responsibility for leading the Australian underwriting businesses of Lumley, WFI and Coles Insurance as CEO of Wesfarmers General Insurance Ltd.

Vivek also currently serves on the Board of Property Exchange Australia Limited (PEXA), an ASX-listed company, as a Non-Executive Director. Vivek holds an undergraduate degree in engineering, a postgraduate in business administration and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (ICFAI).

Director appointed April 2025

TODD DEACON | DIRECTOR

Todd is a Managing Director of Techstars, leading SportsTech investments for their venture capital fund. Techstars is one of the most active venture capital investors globally, making approximately 500 new investments every year in predominately seed stage start-up companies across the world.

More recently, Todd formed Wildcard Ventures with Tennis Australia as Managing Partner. Wildcard Ventures is the venture capital investment arm of Tennis Australia focused on SportsTech investments. Prior to Techstars, in 2013 Todd founded Unscriptd, a sports technology start-up that was acquired in 2018 by US based media company The Player’s Tribune.

Prior to founding Unscriptd, Todd had a long career in management consulting specialising in the sports and entertainment industry with clients such as Tennis Australia, Netball Australia, Cricket Australia, National Rugby League, Australian Sports Commission, Adidas, Quiksilver and Nike.

Director appointed May 2021

LOUISE EYRES I DIRECTOR

Louise is a Non-Executive Director with extensive expertise in commercial, customer, marketing and digital strategy as the Chief Marketing Officer in ASX, global mutual and member-based organisations as well as in Federal Government agencies. Most recently Louise has held executive positions as Chief Marketing Officer for legalsuper, Vanguard Australia and the Australian Sports Commission.

Her connection with netball began during her role as Group GM Marketing ANZ where she delivered ANZ’s sponsorship of the former Trans-Tasman Netball league, the ANZ Championship and its decade long partnership with netball across all levels of the sport.

Currently Louise is also on the boards of Garden Village, Afford, Hastings Co-operative, Hunter Water and VicSport.

Director appointed April 2025

PETER LEGG | DIRECTOR

Peter Legg is a Chartered Accountant who has spent over 20 years as a Senior Finance executive in the sporting industry. Starting as the Chief Financial Officer for Sydney Turf Club, then one of Sydney’s two metropolitan horse racing clubs, from 1998 and leading to his current role as the Chief Financial Officer for the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the NRL competition. The Sydney Turf Club as well as being a sporting club was a major venue operator and Peter was part of building and refurbishing two racecourses, including grandstands and exhibition spaces. He was then the Merger Integration Executive tasked with combining Sydney’s two racing Clubs into one, forming the Australian Turf Club.

After 13 years in Racing he became the Chief Finance Officer for the NRL at the time of the formation of the new Commission structure which now runs the game of Rugby League in Australia. His time at NRL included the game’s first billion dollar broadcast deal. Peter has spent the last seven years at the Rabbitohs helping the Club to being profitable and highly competitive on the field. Peter’s passion for netball comes through his daughter’s involvement at grass roots level. Peter is a member of the Audit and Risk committee since his election and is currently the Chair of that committee.

Director elected April 2019

CHERYL KICKETT-TUCKER AM | DIRECTOR

Professor Kickett-Tucker AM is a highly respected Traditional Owner, research academic, community development practitioner and children’s fiction author. She is a proud Wadjuk Noongar Aboriginal from Western Australia with traditional ties to Ballardong and Yued peoples.

Cheryl has competed in elite level sports as a member of the Australia National Women’s Basketball League, WAIS Rockets and the Western Australian State Basketball League as a player and coach for 20 years and has been a Western Australian representative in the Australian National Junior Basketball Championships. She has been inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame at Governor Stirling Senior High School where she attended as a student.

Cheryl has worked with Australian Aboriginal people all her life in the fields of education, sport and health and is very passionate about using her research to make a real difference to the lives of Aboriginal children and their families.

Cheryl’s commitment to community development is important to her as she currently is a Director of Koya Aboriginal Corporation, a local not for profit 100% Aboriginal controlled and owned community organisation in Midland, WA. She is also a Director of Healthway and BasketballWA.

As well as completing her PhD (Education) (Edith Cowan University, Perth), Cheryl also has a Master of Science (Exercise and Movement Science) (University of Oregon, USA), a Bachelor of Applied Science (Sport Science) (Edith Cowan University, Perth) and an Associate Diploma of Applied Science (Sport Science) (Edith Cowan University, Perth).

Currently, Cheryl is an Australian Research Council Research Fellow at Curtin University. She is also the chief editor and co-author of award winning text book Mia Mia Aboriginal Community Development: Fostering Cultural Security published by Cambridge University Press. Professor Kickett-Tucker was recognised for her significant service to tertiary education and the Aboriginal community and was awarded the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours as a Member of the Order of Australia. In 2019, she was recognised as the 2019 Australian of the Year WA Local Hero for her community sports program for Aboriginal and vulnerable children and youth.

Director appointed April 2023

HON GABRIELLE UPTON | DIRECTOR

Respected business and community leader the Hon Gabrielle Upton has a combined 30 years of experience as a lawyer, banker, government minister and Deputy Chancellor.

Gabrielle serves as a Non-executive Director of The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and is a Strategic Advisor at King Wood Mallesons and Proto Axiom, a medical biotechnology investment fund. She also serves as an Advisory Board Member of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Quantum Biotechnology.

From 2011 to 2023, Ms Upton served in senior NSW Government roles including as the first female NSW Attorney General, Minister for the Environment, Local Government and Heritage, Minister for Family and Community Services and Minister for Sport and Recreation.

Her career began as a corporate lawyer with legal firms Herbert Smith Freehills and DLA Piper and as a banker with Deutsche Bank and Toronto-Dominion Bank in New York. She served on the Corporate Markets and Advisory Committee to the Federal Government and as Legal Counsel at the Australian Institute of Company Directors from 2000 to 2010.

Ms Upton has a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from the University of New South Wales, a Master of Business Administration from New York University’s Leonard Stern School of Business and graduated in 2022 from Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program 203. She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and of the Royal Society of NSW.

Director appointed March 2024

KIRRILY ZIMMERMAN | DIRECTOR

Experienced netball administrator Kirrily Zimmerman is a member of the Netball Victoria Hall of Fame and Legends of the Game committee, and is an international netball bench official. Kirrily has decades of experience in netball at the grassroots level and creating strong pathways to the elite.

Director elected May 2024