Melodie Robinson is a well-known sports journalist, commentator and former international rugby union player for the Black Ferns.
Current role
Melodie is TVNZ's General Manager, Sports and Events where she is leading the sport and event strategy for TVNZ's coverage of global sporting events such as Rugby World Cup 2019, Paralympic Games 2020 and America's Cup 2021. She is also the founder of The Wonderful Group, which supports women to advance their position and influence in the sports media industry.
In 2020, Melodie was appointed the International Rugby Players representative on the Rugby World Cup Limited Board.
Background
Melodie played rugby union at international level, winning two world cups with the Black Ferns. Playing blindside or openside flanker, she played in 18 tests with the Ferns from 1996 to 2002. While playing rugby at the elite level, she gained a BA from the University of Otago, as well as studying Journalism in Wellington. Her first work was in radio working at the press gallery in Wellington covering politics.
Her obvious ability and passion for sports led her to becoming the online sports producer for XtraMSN. While working at Xtra from 1998 to 2002, she produced innovative sports websites like All Blacks and Team New Zealand.
Melodie moved on to Sky Sports in 2002, where she became the world's first female rugby commentator and was a key member of SKY Sports' commentary team. With this role, she was involved in covering major sports for many years, including Olympics and Commonwealth Games, rugby and netball World Cup tournaments, Super Rugby and Mitre 10 Cup rugby.
In 2019, this unstoppable high-achiever completed an MBA at Auckland University's Business School and became New Zealand's first Maori Barbie as part of Mattel's role model line.
Melodie is a media personality with high credibility in the sporting world and a professional wealth of experience like no other!
Would definitely use Melodie again and recommend her as a great choice for a speaker. Appreciate that she was able to go with the flow and bring something special to our event. ... keep reading The University of Auckland
Melodie was a complete professional, lovely to deal with and was able to capture and engage the large crowd with a great mix of humour and thoughtful reflection and insights. Would definitely recommend her for future large dinners as a speaker or MC.
Melodie was a brilliant MC for our Sporting speaker series. Her knowledge of the sporting world enabled her to engage our panelists with great questions, but even answer a few of her own! She was wonderful.
Melodie was a star! She was gracious, articulate and presented beautifully. Not only did she MC our Gala Dinner but also read the Excellence Awards citations with enthusiasm. Melodie answered our brief well, presenting a motivating story of her career journey which I believe our attendees could really relate to. Melodie as our choice of MC was perfect for our special evening.
