Darren Shand was the highly regarded All Blacks Manager from 2004 to 2023. A time that many call the golden era, when the All Blacks won back-to-back tournaments in 2011 and 2015.
In his time, the All Blacks also won the Tri Nations and subsequent Rugby Championship six times. The All Blacks have also won three Grand Slams against the Home Nations in 2005, 2008 and 2010 and been World Rugby Team of the Year ten times: 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010 – 2016 as well as World Sports Team of the Year at the 2015 Laureus Awards.
Darren has a Bachelor of Physical Education (Otago University) and previously served as Marketing Manager with tourism pioneers AJ Hackett Bungy in Queenstown.
In 2022, Darren was brought onto the Culture and Leadership Advisory Board at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, to provide his expertise and experience and help to build a team of thought leaders at Novartis with diverse perspectives.
In 2014, Darren was appointed as an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.
Darren talks about leadership, wellbeing, building teams and growing people, working under pressure, change management and living your values.
Darren was extremely approachable and open. He was honest and upfront. He was professional, informative, and entertaining. ... keep reading Lindisfarne School
We engaged with Darren to present on building high performing teams and a winning culture to a group of aspiring and senior leaders in the Les Mills team. Darren did a superb job of delivering an inspiring and motivating message while all the time relating it to our day to day environment. Darren coupled a great presentation with ad hoc questions that left the group highly engaged, inspired and armed with fresh thoughts on leading in their environments.
