Hockey Australia announces new Chief Executive appointment

Hockey Australia has announced the appointment of David Pryles as its new Chief Executive.

With Matt Favier having stood down from the role following the Tokyo Olympics, Pryles will join  Hockey Australia after three and a half years as the Chief Executive of Softball Australia.

With the sport having experienced several controversies in its recent past including an independent review into the culture of its women's high-performance program, Pryles will be expected to take the sport in a new direction when he takes on the role as of mid-January next year.

With strong commercial and operational acumen, Pryles has led a raft of positive outcomes at the organisations he has worked for and developed excellent stakeholder relationships.

Announcing the appointment, Hockey Australia President, Mel Woosnam stated “following a comprehensive and thorough recruitment process, we are extremely pleased to have someone of David’s calibre and expertise.

“David has demonstrated success and leadership skills as a CEO for an Olympic sporting organisation and understands the landscape, the opportunities and challenges that come with it.”

“He has a strong commercial background from previous sporting roles and previously in the business world.

“He also has a keen understanding of high performance and the critical importance of culture within a high performance environment, plus a real understanding of community sport and participation in developing the strength of hockey.”

“He has operated in a federated model and already has existing contacts with many of Hockey Australia’s key national stakeholders such as the AIS, Sport Australia and the AOC.”

Looking forward to his new role, Pryles commented “hockey is a big sport, a proud Australian sport, a heritage sport, and having the opportunity to lead the organisation is a huge honour.

“There are so many dedicated stakeholders working really hard in the best interests of hockey in Australia. There is a strong foundation in regard to a national league and in regard to two of the most loved sporting teams in Australia in the Kookaburras and Hockeyroos.”

Advising that grass roots participation, building a strong sense of community and supporting local clubs and volunteers are areas he is passionate about, he went on to say “sport does not exist without its members. If they are not playing then we don’t have a sport.

“As a proud volunteer in sport I understand what makes people tick. We need to continue to give back to our members and that’s something I look forward to doing in hockey.”

“The opportunity to build a whole of sport commercial strategy, and there are a lot of pieces to the puzzle that we can bring together and into market, is also something I am really keen to sink my teeth into.

“I look forward to the opportunity to work closely with the states and territories as we collectively build on the strengths of the hockey community.”

“Then building on the cultural review into the high performance program is something that is exciting. We are really proud of the changeover that we did in softball in changing our high performance program less than 12 months out from a qualification event.

“There is a Commonwealth Games less than 12 months away and an Olympics two and a half years away so it’s really exciting being able to affect change.

“I have stated this many a time, it is important to respect the past but we’ve got to move forward and influence the now and into the future.”

Under Pryles’ leadership, Softball Australia became a member of the Australian Pride in Sport program in December last year, highlighting his strong ethos on inclusion, one of Hockey Australia’s core values.

A long period of discontent within the Hockeyoos' set-up reached boiling point late in 2020 when players publicly aired allegations of bullying.

Hockey Australia eventually launched an independent review, which found that a dysfunctional culture existed within the national women's high-performance program.

With Pryles now confirmed as Chief Executive, Hockey Australia will move its attention to appointing a full-time coach for the Hockeyroos.