World Sailing appoint expert Governance Commission
by World Sailing 6 May 2018 03:36 PDT
Lorenzo Chiavarini on day 1 at World Cup Series Hyères © Jesus Renedo / Sailing Energy / World Sailing
World Sailing, the world governing body of the sport, continues to make strong progress with its governance review with the appointment of an expert Governance Commission.
Maria Clarke (NZL) has been appointed by World Sailing as the Independent Chair of the Commission. Maria is a sports lawyer and sports governance expert, who steered through IAAF governance reforms and has recently been appointed to chair the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) governance review.
Maria joins World Sailing Vice President Jan Dawson (NZL), Philip Baum (RSA), Malav Shroff (IND), Sarah Treseder (GBR) and Luis Velasco (ARG) as a member of the Commission. The Commission has already begun its programme of work and will hold its first full in-person meeting in London in May 2018.
The Governance Commission was approved at World Sailing's 2017 Annual Conference in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and is tasked with undertaking an in-depth and wide-ranging review of the governance structure and procedures of World Sailing. From there, they will make recommendations to the Board of Directors for modernising World Sailing's governance.
The Commission will focus its work on roles, rights and responsibilities between the World Sailing Annual General Meeting, the Council, the Board of Directors, and the various committees and commissions.
Complexity and timeliness of the World Sailing decision making processes will be reviewed and the Commission will also propose specific measures for developing best practice in sports governance based on the ongoing work of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations Governance Task Force.
The Commission will consider and recommend changes such as composition, powers, functions and procedures before reporting to the Board and Council in November 2018 with proposed changes.
These will be presented in their final form to the Board in February 2019 and then put forward for final approval at the 2019 Annual Conference in Hamilton, Bermuda.
The creation of the Governance Commission is in line with World Sailing's two-year governance modernisation roadmap outlined in May 2016. World Sailing's two-year road map focuses on meeting ASOIF's standards and best practice in sports governance.