Bay sticks to its own in picking new CEO

After 21 applications, which were whittled down to a shortlisted six and several days' worth of interviews, the Bay of Plenty Rugby Union yesterday decided to keep it in-house in appointing a new chief executive.
In what might be deemed a mild surprise, Bay Rugby's operations manager Mike Rogers will next month move offices at Baypark Stadium, taking over from Jeremy Curragh in the hot seat.
Curragh leaves at the end of next month to head online retailer Natureshop, although his financial nous has been put to good use this week in coming up with an action plan to drag Southland rugby out of its financial abyss.
Bay of Plenty chairman Bruce Cameron was content they had found the right person to take over Curragh's desk.
"Mike knows the rugby industry well and has developed strong commercial acumen, It is important the union continues to strengthen and Mike is the person to do this."
Rogers, who turns 35 the week before he takes over as chief executive, has worked under four different chief executives in his five years with Bay rugby since leaving North Harbour Basketball - Paul Abbot, Dennis Pickup, Stu Harvey (who was also chairman) and Curragh.
He always felt there was a certain level of "succession planning" in his past 2 years as Curragh's right-hand man.
"I alluded to it in the interview process, that my time under Jeremy has almost been like being at Curragh University. I've learned a heap, not only from him but a board that is made up of skilful businessmen possessing a high degree of commercial and financial nous.
"Jeremy has been good at giving me opportunities to work alongside him and learn, to the point I feel like I'm confident I have a good understanding of our business model and have also been heavily involved in the strategic vision of the organisation. It's not new territory.
"I've been transitioning ... so if the opportunity arose I'd be well placed to jump straight in."
But, he pointed out, that didn't necessarily give him any 'preferred candidate' status when he applied for the CEO vacancy.
"It would have been easier for me if the board had said from the outset they wanted to appoint internally, but it was completely the opposite - it was made clear the board and Jeremy had no preconceived idea of who they were going to appoint.
"It was an open and robust process to find the best candidate. I put my hand up and they obviously felt I was the right person."
Rogers felt one of his strengths was the relationships he'd formed in the wider region, as operations manager and also spearheading the province's Rugby World Cup involvement.
His, and Bay Rugby's, vision was to continue the work to make the organisation a provincial rugby leader, not a follower.
"These are interesting times, not just for rugby but all industry, but it's a credit to what's already been done in the Bay that a fantastic foundation has been laid in terms of performance off the field.
"We need to continue that work and not rest on what the Bay has achieved in the last few years."