Former Dunedin and Otago prop Colin Mansbridge has been appointed chief executive of the Crusaders.
Mansbridge takes over from the long-serving Hamish Riach.
Mansbridge played two first-class games for Otago in 1983 and this was followed by a club career which included playing in Dunedin and Christchurch in the 1980s and 1990.
As recently as this year, Mansbridge was the assistant coach of the Burnside men's team in the premier club competition in Christchurch.
Over the past 20 years, Mansbridge has had extensive experience in banking and commercial business in New Zealand and offshore with a number of NZ and global banks. He has held several senior management and leadership roles through his career to date.
Mansbridge has been head of agribusiness for BNZ since June 2017, a senior role which involved leading a team of 50 direct staff and 200 indirect staff, revenue close to $300 million and 12,000 customers.
He was initially a senior partner for BNZ in Canterbury after coming back from his OE where he worked in banking in Southeast Asia and Australia.
He had previously been head of mortgages and head of international trade and finance for BNZ.
Mansbridge said he was drawn to the chief executive role because of his admiration of the Crusaders brand, but also because of his passion for rugby and wanting to lead an organisation that thrived on success and was always pushing the boundaries to be the best.
``The Crusaders have always been the gold standard for professional rugby clubs in the world, and to be appointed chief executive is a real honour. I'm excited by the opportunity to bring my skills, knowledge and experience to this role and take it into a very exciting future,`` he said.
``In my banking career I have found myself leading high-performing teams and the ethos of rugby has never been far from my mind, so to be able to live and breathe this culture every day at Rugby Park was a significant factor in my decision to apply for the role.''
Mansbridge graduated from Otago University in 1992 with a bachelor of commerce degree in accounting and finance. He is married to Carol and has two daughters and two sons.
