Media Release

Halberg Trust Ceo Heading Back Home

Auckland 19 June, 2009:- The Halberg Trust, one of New Zealand’s oldest and most respected charitable organisations, will soon be on the lookout for a new Chief Executive following the decision by Graeme Taylor to step down from the role.

Taylor, Hawke’s Bay born and bred and who still calls Napier home, has decided that “almost four years of commuting most weekends has started to catch up with me”. He leaves at the end of July to take up a position as general manager of the Napier Masonic Trust, with responsibility for a retirement village complex in Taradale.

“Leaving a wonderful organisation like the Halberg Trust is without doubt one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make,” says Taylor, who took over in September 2005 from long-serving Trust CEO Dave Currie. “But recent events, particularly back in Hawke’s Bay, have made me realise the importance of being close to your home, family and good friends.

“It has been a pleasure and a privilege to be involved with the Trust, the great staff and trustees and particularly Sir Murray, a truly amazing man for whom I have so much admiration. But it is just time for me to return home.”

Halberg Trust chairman Mike Jeffcoat says the Trust has already commenced the search to find a new CEO.

“We will miss Graeme and the energy he put into the Trust’s core activity of providing sport and active leisure environments that are both inclusive and accessible to all people with a disability,” he says, “and we are embarking into some wonderful, new relationships and work in the disability sector thanks to Graeme’s efforts.

“So this will be a great opportunity for someone to continue the focus on our twin aims; to ensure New Zealand supports fully inclusive sport and recreation in its widest sense as well as our flagship activity of saluting New Zealand sporting excellence with our annual Westpac Halberg Awards.”

The Halberg Trust was established in 1963 by Sir Murray Halberg with the 1963 British Golf Open winner, Sir Bob Charles, the first Halberg Award winner.

ENDS

© Scoop Media