The New Zealand Equine Industry Training Organisation (NZ EqITO) announced o Thursday that Campbell Moncur has been appointed its new Chairman. He takes over from the retiring Anne Phillips, who has held the seat for the past four years.

The current five-member Board of the New Zealand Equine Industry Training Organisation comprises representatives appointed by the NZ Racing Board (Bill Colgan), NZ Thoroughbred Racing (Liz Luck), Harness Racing NZ (Brigit Hearn), Equestrian Sport NZ (Ray Egarr) and an independent member elected by the Industry Advisory Council ( Campbell Moncur). The role of the IAC is to support the ITO in training development, delivery and review.

Campbell Moncur previously worked for 28 years for the Totalisator Agency Board as a senior manager, followed by five years as Business Development Manager for New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing, the governing body for the Thoroughbred code. He is currently Chief Executive of the TRAC group of clubs.

Bruce Howat, Chief Executive of NZ EqITO, stated: “we have someone chairing the organisation with an incredible breadth of industry experience combined with robust senior management experience. This combination offers the ITO a new dimension of leadership that should help raise the professional standards within the industry.”

“Training is an integral component in taking the racing industry to higher performance levels. This is an industry that is responsible for $1.3 billion dollars to the New Zealand economy, so anything that is done to raise the standards helps raise the economic benefits for the whole country.”

“The ITO works in partnership and consultation with industry to facilitate high quality training at all levels of the industry. We see Campbell playing a significant role in helping us accomplishing that goal and we are very lucky to have someone of his high calibre.”

The NZ EqITO’s primary stakeholders are the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) and the NZ Racing Board (NZRB). Industry sectors contribute to their sector training programmes in amounts equal to or better than the government subsidy.