Keven Mealamu at a 2012 All Blacks test against Ireland in Hamilton. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Sportspeople, lawyers and businesspeople make up the nine-person board of the new Integrity Sport and Recreation Commission.
The independent Crown entity has been charged with increasing the safety and wellbeing of sport and recreation participants and preserving the fairness of competition.
The board will be chaired by leading sports lawyer Don Mackinnon with former Silver Ferns Adine Wilson and Lesley Nicol, former All Black Keven Mealamu, para-swimmer Rebecca McDonald and former international rugby referee Lyndon Bray among the members.
Traci Houpapa, who is a director for the Chiefs Rugby franchise, NZ Trade and Enterprise and a member of the Massey University Council, is also on the board, as is Bobbi-Jo Clark-Heu, the co-chair of Recreation Aotearoa.
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop said New Zealanders believed strongly that sporting competition should be fair and clean.
"I am confident that the inaugural board's collective experience, knowledge and mana will ensure the commission provides the best supports and protections for Kiwis who take part in recreation and sport at any level in New Zealand, from preschool swimming lessons to wearing the fern on the international stage.
"New Zealand is rightly held in high regard internationally for our principled and ethical stance on competition that is free of performance-enhancing drugs, and I'm sure with the new commission established it will continue to be."
Responsibility for the World Anti-Doping Code in New Zealand will also fall to the commission when it begins work on 1 July.
