Swimming New Zealand Chief Exec Resigns

WELLINGTON, New Zealand, August 27. SWIMMING New Zealand chief executive Paul Veric has resigned after more than three years in the position. Under his leadership SNZ has earned status as one of the seven priority sports under the umbrella of New Zealand's Sports and Recreation, more commonly known as SPARC.

During his time with Swimming New Zealand, Veric has overseen the restoration of relationships with regional associations and key aquatic partners, the implementation of a robust high performance and development program, best practice swimming education programs and a high performing management team.

"Paul has made an immense contribution to swimming and to Swimming New Zealand," said SNZ chairman Murray Coulter. "We are obviously disappointed to see him go but at the same time totally support his own career aspirations. This organization was not in the best of health when Paul joined us. He leaves an exciting organization which has developed international traction in the areas of high performance and education. More than that Paul has been responsible for rebranding Swimming New Zealand and delivering a clear strategy for our organization around ensuring that every New Zealander should be able to swim, and with those skills, safely enjoy all the wonderful benefits around the many water settings that New Zealanders love. Thanks to Paul our organization is now well positioned to build on this strong base and looks forward to an exciting future."

Veric will not be lost to water sports. He has accepted a two-year contract consulting to Surf Life Saving New Zealand where he will deliver a national project focused on the prevention of drowning and injury for communities throughout the country.

He said while the move has come sooner than he planned it leaves a fantastic opportunity for someone else to come in and work with such a superb board, staff and membership, something that is hard to leave behind.

"Water sports are my passion and the opportunity to work on such a worthwhile project was too good an opportunity to let pass," Veric said. I leave the sport confident that there is an excellent group of people around the country with a combined culture, commitment and desire to achieve something extraordinary whether that be learn to swim through to producing an Olympic champion."

Special thanks to Swimming New Zealand for contributing this report.

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