How We're Governed

The High Performance Commission oversees the implementation of our High Performance Plan. It considers and advises the RA Board and Management on strategic issues relevant to High Performance rowing. The focus of the Commission is maximizing medal outcomes at the Olympic and Paralympic Games and to achieve this requires the achievement of our agreed performance drivers in the following important areas; Leadership and Governance, Athlete performance and Pathways, Coaching, the Daily Training Environment, Competition, Performance services, Culture and Personal Excellence, and Research and Innovation.

The HP Commission is chaired by Rowing Australia Deputy Chair, Flavia Gobbo and she is joined by Hannah Every Hall (RA Athletes’ Commission Chair), Paul Thompson (Performance Director), Jaime Fernandez (Deputy Performance Director), Reinhold Batschi (person with significant high performance rowing coaching background) and Geoff Lipshut (independent appointment – person with significant high performance background). The Commission meets regularly, reports to the RA Board and involves key stakeholders in its deliberations. A brief Bio of the members is below:

Flavia Gobbo (Chair)

The current Rowing Australia Deputy Chair, Flavia Gobbo is a Director of WorkCover QLD. WorkCover is a government owned statutory body and is the main provider of workers’ compensation insurance in Queensland. Until recently Flavia was the Chairman of Q-COMP as well as part of the Senior Leadership team at Telstra Legal Services and held a number of senior roles during her thirteen plus years at Telstra

On the water, Flavia was a successful rower at both the State and National levels and now competes at Masters level as a member of the University of Queensland Boat Club. She joined the Board of Rowing Australia in December 2012 and was appointed the Vice-Chairman of the Board on October 2014.

Hannah Every Hall

As an athlete, Hannah Every-Hall first competed for Australia at the Nations Cup in 1999 in Hamburg, Germany where she won the U23 Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls. She went on to represent Australia at seven World Rowing Cups and multiple World Championships, as well as representing Australia in the Lightweight Women’s Double Sculls at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Off the water, Every-Hall has a degree in Human Movement, as well as a Masters’ Degree in Dietetics from Deakin University. She is also a member of FISA’s Athletes’ Commission, representing the Asia-Pacific region.

Hannah is the current Chair of the RA Athletes’ Commission, a role she assumed in November 2016.

Paul Thompson OBE

The current Performance Director of Rowing Australia, Thompson is a rowing coach of World and Olympic Champions. With over 30 years of international coaching and leadership experience, Thompson provides the leadership and high performance experience required to oversee RA’s high performance program.

Jaime Fernandez

Jaime Fernandez has represented Australia at three Olympic Games and claimed a silver medal for Australia’s Men’s Eight at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. An accomplished coach, Fernandez is currently the Deputy Performance Director for Rowing Australia where he oversees the performance pathway and supports the delivery of the RA high performance program.

Tim Conrad

Tim Conrad represented Australia at the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games in the Men’s Eight. He then went on to have a highly successful coaching career and was previously the Head Rowing Coach of the Queensland Academy of Sport. Conrad coached Australia’s Men’s Four to silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and also a silver medal at the 2009 World Rowing Championships. Conrad has been a long-standing coach of the Australian Rowing Team across a number of teams.

Geoff Lipshut

Geoff Lipshut is the current CEO of the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia and AIS Winter Sports Program, a position he has held since 2000. Lipshut has also been named to the Australian Olympic Team, as a coach or official, at seven consecutive Olympic Winter Games. Starting in 1994 at Lillehamer Norway as an Aerial Skiing Coach, he was later recognized by the International Olympic Committee with an award of Sporting Excellence in 2003, following Australia’s first Winter Olympic Gold Medal in 2002. At the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, Geoff was a member of the Team Executive in the role of Performance Director, where Australia recorded its best ever performance at a Winter Games, with 2 Gold & 1 Silver medal, together with 6 other top 10 placings. Geoff was again responsible for performance in Sochi 2014, where the Olympic Team also claimed 3 medals.

The National Rowing Participation and Development Commission (NRPDC) is charged to perform the delegated functions of the RA Board in dealing with the National Participation Framework along with facilitating the involvement of key stakeholders and independent experts in the planning and delivery of the Framework.

The National Participation Commission is chaired by RA Board Director, Bryan Weir. The Commission also invites specialists within sports participation to attend meetings and assist the Commission to deliver the National Participation Framework.