Program & Competitions Working Group
The HOC Board of Trustees established a Program & Competition Advisory Group (PCAG) to:
1. Ensure safe and high quality programs and competitions are delivered at the Avantidrome by HOC and the cycling community.
2. Make use of the wealth of experience and knowledge within the cycling community to optimise the use of the Avantidrome by encouraging contribution to program and competition ideas, organisation and review.
3. Support HOC staff.
4. Improve communication between HOC and the cycling community.
5. With respect to the use of the Avantidrome, build a unity of purpose within the community of:
- The greater track cycling good;
- Pride in Avantidrome and the commitment to the success of the National Cycling Centre of Excellence;
- Enjoyment and friendships for life; and
- Improving the quality of all Avantidrome riders, commissaries, volunteers and coaches.
In June of this year the HoC Trust called for applications from people interested in being on this group. Ten members were appointed to this group who met for the first time on 11th August. The group have since met on 13th October and are due to meet once more in December. The members of this group are:
CHAIR: Mark Gilbert. HoC Trustee
Mark is an experienced Managing Director, with over 27 years experience in both senior management and sales and marketing roles, as well as prior experience in FMCG and energy sectors. For the last twelve years, Mark has been in Managing Directorships, in both New Zealand and the Philippines, for the BMW Group, the worlds leading premium car manufacturer. Whilst in the Philippines Mark worked voluntarily for the Tindall Foundation, supporting micro financing initiatives.
Mark recently retired from the BMW Group, and has been engaged in the following:
Executive Member, NZ Business Council for Sustainable Development.
President, NZ Motor Industry Association.
Trustee, Product Stewardship Foundation.
Mark has been involved with club cycling in Auckland, in the past (and whilst his son was competing), and remains interested in the development of the sport. In addition Mark is interested in sustainability and environmental topics; as well as making a difference by working in non-executive roles for select organisations.
Susan Paterson: Chair of HoC Board of Trustees
Susan has been a professional director for the past 15 years and her directorships include Airways Corporation (Chair), Goodman NZ, Abano Healthcare Ltd, Housing NZ Ltd and Les Mills NZ Ltd. She has a keen interest in sport, education and the environment, and her daughter Paige won medals at the August Junior World Track Cycling Championships in Invercargill.
Cath Cheatley
Cath is currently employed by Sport Waikato as the Pathway to Podium Coordinator. Cath is well known for her international track cycling career and can be seen every Wednesday night coordinating Te Awamutu Cycling Club at the Avantidrome.
Cath has been the Director of Community Programmes at the Valley Preferred Cycling Centre in the USA for a three month period. Her roles included planning, organising and managing many community programmes from children’s tricycle lessons, try the track days, children’s bicycle racing league to corporate challenge and UCI professional racing.
On the track, Cath’s achievements speak for themselves:
2008 Beijing Olympian, Cycling.
2006/2010 Commonwealth Games, Cycling.
2010 Individual NRC Road Champ USA, Cycling. 10th Road World Championships
2007 World Champion Bronze Medalist, Track Cycling.
2007 New Zealand Track Cyclist of the Year.
Multiple New Zealand Cycling Champion on both the Road and Track.
Michael Hamid
Michael has been a keen road cyclist for over 20 years and raced competitively at club, centre and national level. Having recently taken up mountain biking Michael decided to take on track riding. Michael can often be found at the Avantidrome and rides with a number of groups including Pavement Panthers, Pain Train and Velo Equippe.
Michael was involved in the Hamilton City Cycling club when it was first formed and served on the committee for a number of years and represented the club and Centre meetings on a number of occasions. Michael brings a lot of passion for cycling in all forms to the group plus is open to new ideas and implementing them.
Professionally Michael has an IT and Project Management background and an MBA.
Scott Gemmill
Scott has a road racing background with a few points races on the track as well and MTB in the eighties, riding for a few shop teams and then progressing to rides for Schwinn, Specialized and Puma. Scott has returned to cycling at a recreational level in the last five years.
Professionally, Scott has worked in the cycling industry with Pearl Izumi, Santini, Asics, Oakley and Hind on product launches, events and customer engagement initiatives.
Scott now focuses on corporate communications, stakeholder engagement and change management. He would like to leverage his professional experiences to increase the touch points between the HOC and the wider cycling community. As a parent, he is also eager to support the ongoing development of school and junior programs.
Scott can be found at the Avantidrome most Tuesday mornings riding with the Huskies.
Dale Ertel
Dale got into cycling as a result of a health scare 11 years ago and before long saw a need for a cycling club in Matamata. So along with encouragement from family and friends in March 2005 created the Matamata Peddlers Recreational Cycling Club. Currently this club has 98 paid up members.
Dale has always enjoyed watching Olympic and Commonwealth games track racing on TV, so when the Avantidrome was mooted,he followed it’s development with much interest.
Dale and his wife took advantage of one of the open days during construction and from that moment, decided he wanted to master the beast or the “wall of death” .
Dale joined the Velo 500 group and proudly took his place amongst many similar aged (and shaped) riders. The first few Velo 500 accreditation rides were a massive challenge – just overcoming nerves. Dale gained full accreditation and currently rides twice a week with Velo Equipe on Monday nights and Matamata Peddlers on Thursday nights. Dale is currently competing in the Pursuit challenge.
Dale is more than happy for the cycling community to contact him with any comments and feedback.
Stuart Gudsell
Stuart’s involvement in the sport goes back over 20 years at a local club level to the Waikato/BOP Centre and at National level as Commissaire. Stuart has been a Race Director of many events from Club, Centre and through to Road Nationals held in the Waikato and has an understanding what works and what doesn’t. Stuary was a key playmaker in initiating the well respected TA Junior Tour that has been going now going for some 15 years.
John McDonnell – HoC Trustee
John is a former Board member of BikeNZ and is currently Deputy Principal at Cambridge High School.
John originates from Wanganui where he was an Assistant Principal of Wanganui High School. He has been a member of the Wanganui Cycling club for 43 years, an international commissaire and has held many positions within cycling including President of Cycling New Zealand. In June 2011 John was awarded BikeNZ Road & Track life membership.