About Ascot Park Hotel Southern Steel

At the completion of the National Bank Cup in 2007, Southland and Otago joined forces to make a bid for one of the five New Zealand teams in the ANZ Championship in 2008.  The Southern Sting and Otago Rebels franchises were merged to create the Southern Steel.
 
Ascot Park Hotel Southern Steel has a 60%/40% ownership by Netball Southland and Netball Otago respectively.  The board is made up of 4 Netball Southland board members, 3 Netball Otago board members and 2 independents.

The Board 

Janet Copeland

(Chairperson)

Janet Copeland is the Principal of Janet Copeland Law based in Invercargill.  Specialising in Employment Law and Human Resources since 1994, Janet has had considerable experience working with a diverse range of employers throughout New Zealand in both the public and private sectors and has also presented to various industry groups in New Zealand.  Janet has been a Director and Chair for Southern TeamCo Ltd since February 2005 as well as having held Board roles with Southland Hockey Inc, New Zealand Hockey Federation, Telford Rural Polytechnic and the Southern Institute of Technology.

Werner van Harselaar

Werner van Harselaar has been on the Steel Board since its inception in 2007 and he has been Chair of Netball Otago for the past three years.  He is an active sports enthusiast and has been involved with a number of sports as a participant and legal counsel.  His governance roles relate primarily to education and sports.  In education he has provided training and advice to a number of Boards through the School Trustees Association mentoring programme.  Werner is a partner at the law firm of Rodgers Law and he is married with two children.

Doreen Evans

After four years overseas and 10 years living in Dunedin, Doreen returned home to Invercargill with her son in 2004.  In addition to her position on the Southern TeamCo board (appointed in 2005) she also sits on the board of D.A.R.E Southland Incorporated.  She is a commercial partner at Preston Russell Law in Invercargill.

Erica Allen

Erica is currently employed as Business Development Manager for Enomatic Asia Pacific Ltd. She has held a range of management level marketing positions and was in a senior management role at the Dunedin College of Education from 2000 - 2006. She has been actively involved in a number of sporting codes as the manager of school, age-group and representative teams and is a board member of Netball Otago.  Erica was a member of the Otago Rebels board, has chaired a school board of trustees, been a member of a secondary school board of governors and has held positions on the boards of the tertiary accommodation facilities, Studholme College and City College . She brings to her role as a Steel board member an approach that focuses on her empathy for young people and the experience gained through her work with tertiary students.

Kate Leebody

Kate is currently employed at St Peter’s College in Gore.  She serves on the Board of the Mataura Licensing Trust, the St Peters Board of Trustees and the Gore JP’s Association Council. She has been a director on the Board of Southern Team Co since its inception and has been actively involved in the administration of netball for a long time. She is a Life member of Netball Eastern Southland, Netball Southland and a service award holder of Netball New Zealand as well as being recognised for her work with South Island Secondary Schools netball.

Ken Lister

An Independent Board member, Ken is Branch Manager and an Investment Advisor for the Dunedin Branch of Forsyth Barr Ltd. Ken has over 30 years experience in accounting, banking, investment banking, funds management and sharebroking roles in New Zealand and overseas. This included managerial positions in London with Barclays Bank and Saudi International Bank. Ken has a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting and Finance from the University of Otago, is a member of both the Institute of Chartered Accountants and Institute of Directors. Married with three children, Ken was born in Dunedin and is actively involved in the community, taking up roles as Chair of the Board of Trustees at St Hilda's Collegiate Inc and a Trustee of the Southern Trust.