Martin Snedden

Engaging speaker on sport, business and leadership as well as a humorous after dinner speaker.

Martin Snedden is an in demand keynote speaker, sharing his internationally acclaimed success story from the RWC 2011.

He is currently a director of New Zealand Cricket (NZC) and was also a director of Auckland World Master Games 2017 (the entity charged with delivering an event of significant sporting and economic importance for Auckland).

Throughout 2014, as a director of the International Cricket Council (ICC), Martin was closely involved in the ICC’s reorganisation of the governance of international cricket and the re-shaping of cricket's Future Tours programme. This role also saw Martin leading the winning New Zealand/Australian bid for the 2015 ICC World Cup.

As CEO of the Tourism Industry Association, he led our tourism industry through the creation of 'Tourism 2025', a framework to provide New Zealand's number two-ranked export earning industry with a confident sense of strategic direction through the next decade.

Between 2007 and 2011, he was CEO of Rugby New Zealand 2011 Ltd, the company responsible for staging the extremely successful Rugby World Cup 2011. His book, a personal account of this RWC experience, A Stadium of Four Million was published in 2012.

Between 2001 and 2007, as CEO Martin headed NZC during a tumultuous period punctuated by issues relating to terrorism, politics and player contract negotiations, a period where the BLACKCAPS (New Zealand cricket team) consistently ranked high in both tests and one day internationals. He led the successful joint NZC / Cricket Australia bid for the rights to host Cricket World Cup 2015.

During his own playing days he represented the BLACKCAPS between 1980 and 1990, playing 25 tests and 93 one day internationals including playing in the infamous 'underarm' match against Australia.

Prior to his role of CEO of NZC, Martin practised as a lawyer, including 11 years as a partner of an Auckland law firm. In January 2012, he was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

Martin is an engaging speaker who captivates his audiences with his friendly anecdotal story telling style. Martin also receives outstanding feedback for his ability to deliver key messages of the conference and for his involvement with the audience and time he takes to ensure he has a great understanding of the organisation.

Presentations:

Leadership
Sport and Business
After Dinner

Testimonials:

"Martin was wonderful. The audience was largely made up of females who might not necessarily respond well to a presentation on rugby, but he made it about much more than that and it appealed to everyone in the room, whether they were senior or junior, in marketing or finance. A perfect blend of humour, storytelling, and useful take away advice. Loyalty NZ

"With a topic which can be very heavy and emotionally draining, Martin closed the conference on a high. I was very impressed by his story telling skills and his ability to reach out to the audience and draw them into his world. As a speaker he is a dream to work with and I'd like to thank him for his efforts at this conference. Conferenz Marketing Summit

Martin has a very good corporate background and was excellent at weaving in the key messages we gave him before hand. Very personable and very easy to work with. He was excellent and worth every penny." ANZ

Martin provided an excellent speech and had the audience enthralled with his story presented in a relaxed, informal manner. He incorporated the theme for the evening ‘Strength through Partnership' very well into his speech. He showed his local knowledge of the area, which gained report with the audience. It was refreshing to have a person of his calibre talk about an event, rather than himself. Congratulations Martin, well done. We have had a lot of very positive feedback from people who attended – each one thoroughly enjoyed the evening. Willis Toomey

"I personally appreciated the approach you took of sharing your success story and relating your experiences and lessons learned. You provided a perspective that resonated with the dinner audience. I particularly noted your insights regarding a shared vision and the value of relationships, and how you then related them to effective peacekeeping missions where we all have to work together to achieve the effect we want. These are valuable insight which we can incorporate immediately when planning multi-national, multi-agency peacekeeping operations" - Chief of Army