Widely respected for his transformative impact on New Zealand sport, Darren Shand was the All Blacks Manager from 2004 to 2023—an era often hailed as the team’s golden age. Under his leadership, the All Blacks clinched back-to-back Rugby World Cup victories in 2011 and 2015, triumphed in fifteen Tri Nations and Rugby Championship titles, and completed Grand Slam tours of the Home Nations in 2005, 2008, and 2010. Their dominance saw them named World Rugby Team of the Year ten times and recognised globally as World Sports Team of the Year at the 2015 Laureus Awards.
With a Bachelor of Physical Education from Otago University, Darren’s early career included a pivotal role as Marketing Manager for AJ Hackett Bungy, helping define Queenstown’s adventure tourism brand. His talent for culture-building was later recognised by Swiss multi-national pharmaceutical company, Novartis, where he joined their Culture and Leadership Advisory Board in 2023.
In 2014, Darren was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to rugby. That same commitment to excellence now continues through his platform Winning Teams. Drawing on over two decades of experience driving the high-performance culture behind one of the world’s most successful sporting teams— a winning percentage of 83% across more than 250 matches during this period—Darren now works with leaders worldwide to foster peak performance environments.
His leadership philosophy is shaped by the insights of thought leaders including Jim Collins, Patrick Lencioni, Simon Sinek, and Nicholas Janni, bringing a rich blend of organisational excellence, purposeful leadership, team health, and conscious development to everything he does.
Talking Points
Creating Winning Teams
Building a winning team—whether in sport or business—goes far beyond assembling top talent. It’s about cultivating a culture where people thrive, purpose drives performance, and the sum becomes greater than its parts. Drawing on two decades at the heart of the legendary All Blacks era, Darren Shand shares the philosophy, leadership principles, and behind-the-scenes strategies that shaped one of the most successful teams in sporting history. From the quiet power of support roles to the culture-shaping influence of values-driven leadership, this keynote explores how to grow people, align purpose, and embed high performance into the DNA of a team.Creating Winning Teams
Key Takeaways:
• Understand the importance of the "team around the team" and how to leverage collective effort for sustained success
• Embrace the “we over me” mindset and the unseen contributions that drive extraordinary outcomes
• Discover how to grow people based on values, compatibility, and collaboration—not just capability
• Learn how to turn ordinary moments, roles, and individuals into the foundation of extraordinary achievements
Supporting Peak Performance
Sustaining peak performance is never a one-off achievement—it’s a culture, a rhythm, and a mindset. In this keynote, Darren Shand draws on his deep experience guiding the All Blacks through their most dominant era to explore what it really takes to create and maintain a high-performance environment. From aligning people around shared purpose and values to embedding resilience and continuous improvement into the team’s DNA, Darren reveals the systems and behaviours that empower individuals and organisations to consistently operate at their best.Supporting Peak Performance
Key Takeaways:
• Discover how shared purpose, goals, values, and ethics create unity and drive excellence
• Learn how complementary skills and clearly defined roles contribute to seamless collaboration
• Explore how trust, open communication, and accountability underpin a resilient and adaptable culture
• Understand the power of continuous improvement, recognition, and celebration in building enduring performance
Darren was fantastic to work with. He listened carefully to our requirements, and delivered lots of entertaining stories which is exactly what we asked for. His key takeaway points on leader ... keep reading Master Plumbers
Darren was extremely approachable and open. He was honest and upfront. He was professional, informative, and entertaining.
Darren was a very interesting and engaging speaker. Darren was approachable and friendly and a real pleasure to work with. Our team really enjoyed listening to Darren speak.
Great guy with some great Leadership insight that he weaved well into his own story.
We engaged with Darren to present on building high performing teams and a winning culture to a group of aspiring and senior leaders in the Les Mills team. Darren did a superb job of delivering an inspiring and motivating message while all the time relating it to our day to day environment. Darren coupled a great presentation with ad hoc questions that left the group highly engaged, inspired and armed with fresh thoughts on leading in their environments.
