OUR BOARD

Club Captain

Amy has been a member of West End Rowing Club since 2014 when she moved from Wellington in search for flatter water, having started as a novice with Victoria University. Amy had success as part of the West End club squad and Auckland’s Regional Performance Centre, earning 11 New Zealand Championship medals in West End colours, including Gold Coats for the Lightweight 2x and Lightweight 1x in 2017 and 2020 respectively. Amy also rows and races actively with our Masters’ squad since hanging up her competitive oars in 2024 with a swansong tour of Europe, including racing at Henley Royal and Holland Beker Regattas. After involvement coaching the novice squad for 25-26 and previously being a Board member, Amy has been elected to Club Captain in 2026 and is excited to embark on a different way to give back to the club.

clubcaptain@werc.co.nz

Club President

John came to West End in 2017, having previously rowed at North Shore, Victoria University and Hawke’s Bay Rowing Clubs. Since then, John has proudly represented West End Rowing Club at the Head of the Yarra in Melbourne, Australian Masters’ Rowing Champs at Lake Barrington, Tasmania and many domestic rowing regattas. John was a lawyer, qualified in New Zealand, England & Wales and the State of California, but sensibly abandoned that to develop and operate two gold mines in Vietnam. John continues to be involved in the minerals sector and also holds a number of non-executive directorships. John has been the Chair of WERC’s Executive Board since 2020.

Board Chairperson

Richard rowed at college and Cambridge University (but not in the blue boat), then in London at Thames RC and Lea RC. Richard raced several times at Henley Royal but never successfully. On return to NZ in 2011, Richard admittedly erred by initially rowing at Auckland RC but was redeemed when poached by West End for a Henley Masters crew in 2019.

After a brief period as a structural engineer designing bridges, Richard found his way to ‘finance’, where he spent the next 25 years. After which, to keep out of his wife’s way, he was involved in governance for 15 years. This happily also allowed him to spend time on the water once again after a 15-year break for children. He has previously been Treasurer for Auckland Rowing Club and for Auckland Grammar School Rowing Club.

boardchair@werc.co.nz

Chief Financial Officer

Liz Forde first joined West End in 2003 in a Corporate Learn to Row programme run by Lew Beck. While at WERC she’s organised crews for Head of the Yarra, been Masters Captain from 2019-2022 and CFO on the West End Executive Board since 2019. Liz has a large bundle of gold medals from Masters regattas and her rowing highlights have been competing in a 200km rowing race in France called Canal du Midi, Head of the Yarra in Australia nine times and rowing from Taupo to Port Waikato three times. While not rowing, Liz is a busy Mum of three grown children, a volunteer driver for the Auckland Cancer Society, a mosaic artist and a crypto enthusiast. She’s currently working for a Blockchain and dApp infrastructure service provider setting up and managing their Crypto treasury, and her side hustle is helping people with their Crypto Inheritance planning. In 2022 Liz cycled from Cape Reinga to Bluff in 30 days as part of the Tour Aotearoa brevet.

School Principal’s Representative

James Bentley is the Principal of St Peters College and was appointed onto the WERC Board in August 2025.

Board Member

Gary has a 25 year career with extensive general and financial management experience across several industries and with multi-national corporations, public companies, private equity-owned companies and in start-up environments.

Club Secretary

Cordelia rowed at West End in the 1990’s with the Auckland University crew and then the women’s club squad. After a few years racing for Mercantile Rowing Club in Melbourne, Cordelia finished her club rowing in 2002 with her first foray into Masters rowing - a win at the World Masters Games in Ballarat in the A 2x.

Returning to Auckland, the lure of the West End Women’s Masters squad and some of her old crew mates brought Cordelia back to rowing and back to WERC for the 2022 Masters season - after a 20 year hiatus.

Outside of rowing Cordelia has worked in IT in management consulting and now the Insurance industry. She joined the West End Executive Board because she sees the importance of giving back to your community and using the skills that you have for the club.

Board Member

Suzanne first started rowing at West End in 1989 when Takapuna Grammar was the school rowing out of WERC. She later rowed for Auckland University at West End before moving to Christchurch, where she served as President of the University of Canterbury Rowing Club - but returned to Auckland every summer to row at WERC. She was a club rower and West End’s Women’s Captain in the 1990s to early 2000s. Suzanne “retired” in 2003 with her top performance being a silver medal in the Women’s Prem Eight at Nationals. 

After returning from her OE, Suzanne joined the masters squad at West End in 2012. Since then, her crews have won many medals and raced in Tasmania, Melbourne, Boston, Henley, and later this year, Slovenia. 

Outside rowing, Suzanne works in Marketing and Customer Comms, with long stints at Atlantis Health, Vodafone and now Westpac.