Cooney NZRU board nominee
BY LOGAN SAVORY
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Well-respected Invercargill businessman Graham Cooney has agreed to put his name forward to try to help the New Zealand Rugby Union succeed in coming years.
Cooney, the Rugby Southland board chairman, has been nominated as a candidate to join the NZRU board this year.
If his quest to join the NZRU decision-making team is successful he will be the first person from the Highlanders region to be included on the board since 2002.
A position on the NZRU board has become vacant with Marlborough's Mark Peters standing down as one of two representatives for the South Island zone. Peters talked to Cooney last year about the possibility of standing for the board.
He was eventually nominated by Rugby Southland, with the North Otago union seconding.
Cooney will travel to Wellington next week to undergo an interview process by a committee organised by the NZRU.
That committee will then put its recommendations to the provincial unions, which will vote for a new board member at the NZRU annual meeting on April 22.
Cooney and Nelson's Max Spence are the two candidates nominated for the South Island position.
If the Southlander is successful in his bid to be elected he will be required to step down from his role as Rugby Southland chairman.
"I'm really enjoying my role with Southland and what we have done here but I cannot be associated with a union if I am elected," Cooney said yesterday.
Rugby Southland chief executive Roger Clark said it would be disappointing to lose Cooney as chairman of the union, a role he has held for the past two years, but he backed Cooney's move to join the NZRU board.
As well as Cooney's job as Rugby Southland chairman he has other major roles in governance positions, including being chairman of Blue Sky Meats (NZ) Ltd and the Southern Institute of Technology.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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