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Hands on… Ann Tod’s work for netball is a labour of love

Netball has long been a family affair for Takapuna accountant Ann Tod, who has won recognition for her work to support the sport she loves.

Made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, Tod is the finance director of World Netball.

She is also a familiar face at the Netball North Harbour courts, having transitioned over the decades from club player to coach and umpire of her daughters’ teams to convenor of the netball centre’s umpiring committee.

It’s the team aspect of the game that she most enjoys. Working collaboratively, combined with her auditing skills – honed in a 40-year career at KPMG where she rose to audit partner – turned out to be a good fit.

“I’m not an auditor who loves going to find mistakes – I like a good outcome so people can describe what is going on with their financial statements,” she says.

Improved financial understanding has led sports organisations and charities she has worked with to better decision-making, and also helped members and supporters see where money was being spent.

Tod’s netball and accounting strengths combined in 2011 when then Netball New Zealand chief executive Raelene Castle proposed the role World Netball role. Tod found she loved attending the governing body’s board meetings three times a year, learning from “sitting with women of all different cultures”.

Her third and last four-year term will take her to World Cup 2023 in South Africa. The timing of some meetings with pinnacle events is, she says, “a perk of the job”.

Although Tod’s Honours citation was for her governance and long community-netball work, it also mentioned her other contributions through Rotary and Harbour Hospice, which she has chaired since 2019.

The honour was celebrated with family, who all share Tod’s interests in netball. “Everyone is very proud,” she says.

Her three daughters, now in their 30s, all played through the age grades. Husband Alastair Tod was a basketballer, but got drawn into umpiring and is now teacher in charge of netball at Glenfield College.

Tod stepped down as a KPMG partner in late 2020, but is now back there three days a week. An outdoorsy “active relaxer” who likes to garden, attend live sport and sew, she found she wasn’t ready for full retirement.

Tod preferred netball umpiring to coaching as it posed less of a time commitment around work hours, but was still a way of contributing – with the bonus of keeping her fit. “It’s the job most people don’t want,” she adds. Now, as an umpire coach, she can draw on situations she has faced herself.

“I had a classic when I was umpiring Year 6 finals – a dad came up to me and said, ‘I don’t know the rules, but…’. I said, ‘I do know the rules.’ ”

Netball has a strength in its strong female-led foundation and community connection, she says, noting that women “generally” park egos when working collaboratively.

As with other sports and the arts, the challenge is to come back from Covid-disruption. Government wage subsidies helped, but the impact on revenues continues. “And as much as financially, it’s sheer tiredness.”

Tod is an advocate for getting off the couch, however. “Technology is a gift but in our lives we need to look for other things where we connect with people and use our bodies.”


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