Raelene Castle joined Rugby Australia as the code’s first female Chief Executive Officer, where she held the role from January 2018 until April 2020. Following her move to New Zealand, Raelene became the CEO of Sport New Zealand, beginning her role in December of 2020.
Prior to this, she was previously the Chief Executive of the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, where she spent four years leading the National Rugby League club following her 6 years as Chief Executive of Netball New Zealand.
Before beginning her career in sports administration, Raelene built a successful corporate career with senior roles in communications and sales & marketing and general management at some of New Zealand leading companies, including Telecom, Bank of New Zealand, and Fuji Xerox.
She has a rich sporting background as a former representative-level netball, tennis and lawn bowls player. Raelene has held several governance roles in sport, previously serving as a board director of the ANZ Championship netball, the International Federations of Netball Associations (IFNA), SANZAAR Rugby and World Rugby Council.
In 2015, Raelene was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to Business and Sport.
