BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Director

Role

Bio

Chris Thomas

President

B.Ed

Chris  spent  over 35 years in the advertising business – the majority of them at BBDO which is a part of Omnicom.  British by birth, he is a global citizen – he and his wife Fleur have lived in London, Singapore, New York and now Melbourne. Chris spent a decade as CEO of BBDO in Asia Middle East and Africa and still has the air miles to prove it. In 2015 he moved to New York as CEO of BBDO in the Americas with responsibility for 22 offices from Canada to Chile. In 2019 Chris and Fleur moved to Australia where their four adult children live. Chris serves on multiple public company boards and advises startups in Singapore and Sydney. 

Chris has been kitesurfing for over 30 years and when traveling with work usually had a kite and board with him. He has been on the Board of Kiteboarding Australia for over two years focusing on communications and marketing. 

Meg Delahoy

Vice - President

For over two decades Meg has supported the delivery of major infrastructure and event projects. Professional highlights include supporting the delivery of two Summer Olympic Games – London 2012 and Rio 2016– and as Manager of Engineering Services for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, one of the largest sporting events held in Australia.  

Meg is currently leading a program of annual capital, State and Federal funded major projects on Rottnest Island to improve the visitor experience and deliver sustainable infrastructure upgrades. Meg has recently completed a Graduate Diploma of Emergency and Disaster Management with Charles Darwin University. 

Meg has been kiting for 20 years and loves to travel to explore new spots. Other sports she enjoys are beach volleyball, sailing and mountain biking.

Rhys Higham

Elected Director 

B.Eng

With a Bachelor of Engineering (Civil and Water) Rhys works for a national railway company as a senior manager/project manager. He has been a passionate kitesurfer for over 10 years and has been a member of the Kiteboarding South Australia (KSA) committee since 2009 (committee member 2009-2012, Treasurer 2012-2014, Vice President 2014-2017). Rhys provided direction and leadership to KSA managing all facets of the state association, particularly developing event frameworks, governance, budgets and expenditure, and running of State Title events. Rhys was a member of the Kiteboarding Australia Event and Competition Committee from April 2014 to July 2015 and has been a member of the Kiteboarding Australia National Freestyle Committee from April 17 to present. Based on his experience on the KSA committee, his career as a senior manager and following his involvement with the KA Event and Competition committees Rhys is looking to apply his skills and knowledge to help drive KA towards becoming a nationally recognised sport, establish national series events for all kiteboarding disciplines, provide increased support to the state associations and ultimately provide increased value for money to all KA members.

Emily Ekert

Elected Director 

Emily Ekert is a sport management professional with 8 years' experience and a Business Degree. Emily currently works as the Engagement Manager of Sport for Curtin University. 

Prior to working for Curtin, Emily was the Commercial Manager for Rowing Australia, leading her department on sponsorship, marketing, media and communications. Previous to this, Emily was the Membership and Marketing Manager for Triathlon Western Australia. She has worked for multiple sporting organisations at various levels, including clubs, state bodies and national associations.

Emily is extremely passionate about sport at all levels from grassroots participation to high performance. Joining the Kiteboarding Australia board in December 2023, she is focused on adding value through good sport governance, risk management and best practices.  

Phil Wishart

Elected Director

 Phil Wishart EMPA

Phil has extensive experience within the sport and major events industry, currently employed at Paralympics Australia as the General Manager of Government Relations and Stakeholder Engagement.

Previously led the NSW Government’s 10 World Cups in 10 Years initiative at the NSW Office of Sport. Phil has worked closely with a range of organisations across the industry to help maximise the benefits of hosting major events, now leveraging these relationships to support the advancement of the Paralympic Movement in the lead up to Brisbane 2032.

Phil was a non-executive Director for the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022 Local Organising Committee and represents Paralympics Australia on several Brisbane 2032 working groups. Throughout his career he has worked in local and state government in addition to the corporate and non-for-profit sector. He holds and Executive Masters in Public Administration, a Graduate Diploma of Sports Media, and a Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Management.

Richard Hatherall 

Elected Director

Richard combines extensive business strategy experience with a passion for our sport.

He has over 30 years of executive experience, primarily in strategy consulting with Bain & Company, where he is a Senior Partner based in Sydney. His areas of expertise include strategy, customer-led growth, organisational effectiveness and operational excellence (including digital and AI capability development). His clients include both large corporates and pro bono organisations.

Born in the UK, Richard has lived and worked across the US, Europe and Asia. Richard and Jess (wife of 25 years) have lived in Australia for over 20 years and have three teenage children.

Richard has been an enthusiastic kitesurfer for over 20 years and wingfoiler for the last 4 years. He co-organised  the Kite the Reef expedition in 2015. This set a world record of 1200km for longest kiteboarding journey as a team in 2015 (since broken by another team!).

Stephanie Hagenbrock

Appointed Director