New Zealand Rugby CEO, Steve Tew received the prestigious C.K. Doig Leadership Award, which is awarded to a person in the sport sector who displays outstanding leadership in relation to their organisation or the sector as a whole.

Steve has been recognised for achieving outstanding success and for overcoming significant challenges that the game has faced. Under his leadership, New Zealand Rugby currently holds the four major international rugby trophies and enjoys a strong financial position. But beyond these current successes, he has also created a solid platform for the future of rugby in New Zealand.

"As a leader, Steve is known for his clarity of thought, effective communication and ability to tackle issues head-on," said Sport New Zealand Chief Executive, Peter Miskimmin.

"Add an astute commercial brain and the fact that he's a sports fan to the core, and it's no surprise that he has led New Zealand Rugby with distinction."

Lifetime achievement awards were presented to Barry Maister, an IOC Member, former Secretary General of the New Zealand Olympic Committee, and Olympic gold medal winning hockey player; Lesley Murdoch, a former dual international in cricket and hockey, selector, coach, board member and broadcaster; and Adrienne Greenwood, Vice President of the International Sailing Federation, former Yachting New Zealand CEO, sailing coach and Olympic selector.

"These award recipients have all given life-long service to sport and it's because of people like these that we have a world-leading sport system in New Zealand," said Peter Miskimmin.

And to recognise the backbone of New Zealand's sport system, Mel Morris from Marlborough was announced as Sport Maker 2014 - a volunteer who shows a passion and commitment to sport which is inspiring to those around them.

"The Lotto Volunteer Foundation would like to congratulate this year's Sport Maker, Mel Morris, for her invaluable contribution to sport at both a club and regional level," said Lotto New Zealand Chief Executive, Wayne Pickup.

"Mel has demonstrated a commitment to sport in her community that goes above and beyond what is expected of a volunteer - an achievement her community should be very proud of."

The award for Event Excellence went to the Audi Quattro Winter Games New Zealand, while Sport Gisborne was recognised with the award for Community Impact for its Wednesday After-School Sport programme. Sport Wellington won the award for Communications Excellence for AMI Round the Bays, NZ Golf won the Innovation Award for its 'Ko Goes Pro' initiative, and NZ Cricket and DB Breweries won the award for Commercial Partnership.

Below are further details of the winners in each of those categories.

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More about the award winners

Event Excellence - Audi Quattro Winter Games New Zealand

Queenstown hosted the third biannual Winter Games New Zealand, providing a unique opportunity for Kiwis to witness one of the largest snow sports events outside of the Winter Olympics. The 2013 Winter Games acted as a qualifier to the Sochi Olympics and offered world ranking points. For the first time, the programme featured four FIS World Cup events and two IPC World Cup events in a variety of snowboard and ski racing that attracted Olympic standard fields.

In addition to the action on the slopes, the Games worked closely with Snow Sports New Zealand, Tourism New Zealand, Destination Queenstown and Lake Wanaka Tourism to ensure the public, competitors and media were welcomed to bustling downtown hubs, featuring live entertainment, medal ceremonies, live broadcasts and an Adventure Film Festival.

The Audi Quattro Winter Games New Zealand delivered an economic benefit of $7.8 million to New Zealand.

Community Impact - Wednesday After-School Sport - Led by Sport Gisborne

Gisborne's 'Wednesday After-School Sport' programme was driven by a desire to address declining secondary school sport participation. Sport Gisborne and the region's four high schools shared an ambitious vision to increase the participation rate from 42% (second lowest in NZ) to the national average of 53% by 2015. To ensure a successful outcome other partners were approached, including Regional Sports Organisations, the council and the local bus company to provide more opportunities for, and better coordination of, sport activities.

The resultant sport programme removed key barriers such as transport and was student-led. Over 500 students per week took part in the initiative leading to an increased participation rate of 56% - above the national average. Teacher participation also increased from 24% to 51%, with an extra 91 teachers getting involved in delivering school sport.

Communications Excellence - Sport Wellington - AMI Round The Bays

After a sell-out event in 2012, Sport Wellington set a goal of increasing AMI Wellington Round the Bays participation to 13,000 in 2013. To help achieve this goal a comprehensive multi-channel communications strategy was developed that involved print, radio, billboards, bus-backs, direct communication and ramping up online communication via the likes of Twitter and Facebook.

By further harnessing the power of social media, Sport Wellington was able to generate an even stronger connection with its community. Enhancements and incentives such as expert training tips, additional sponsor leverage and prize give-aways also helped to increase engagement and drive registrations. The result was not only a new record of 13,733 participants in 2013, but well planned and executed communications activity that helped keep a city informed, engaged and active.

Innovation - Ko Goes Pro - New Zealand Golf

Innovation can be described as the introduction of something new or different. On that basis, the announcement that Lydia Ko was turning professional was certainly innovative. The method for the announcement broke with tradition and was a huge success.

Befitting Lydia's age and personality, social media was used as the channel and resulted in global cut-through. Incorporating a popular All Black into the viral announcement video was also a masterstroke, broadening its appeal outside of the normal golfing audience and showcasing the game in a fun and youthful way.

Further illustrating the announcement's success, it was selected as one of the candidates for 'sporting moment of the year' at February's Westpac Halberg Awards.

Commercial Partnership - New Zealand Cricket and DB Breweries

In 2012/2013 New Zealand Cricket restructured its commercial programme and commenced its partnership with DB Breweries. With a common goal of enhancing the fan experience at ground and at home, Tui was chosen as the DB brand with the best fit to cricket, due to its essence of fun and track record of engaging marketing campaigns.

The results achieved in the first year of the partnership have exceeded expectations. The innovative 'Tui Corporate Box' initiative was a feature of the England tour to New Zealand at the start of 2013 and the 'Tui Catch A Million' campaign that commenced at the end of 2013 was hugely successful.

Working together, New Zealand Cricket and DB Breweries have been able to achieve win-win outcomes that have not only created a buzz and significant exposure of Tui around cricket, but have also driven match attendance for NZ Cricket.

Sport Maker 2014 - Mel Morris

Mel Morris has been volunteering for the last nine years and is currently the Junior Advisory Board convenor of the Moutere Magpies rugby club in Marlborough. She's also the club delegate and Treasurer for the Marlborough Sub Union JAB Committee, manages softball, basketball and touch teams, coaches a flipper ball team and also coaches two volleyball teams, on top of working part-time as a teacher and being a busy mother to three school aged boys.

Lesley Murdoch - Lifetime Achievement Award

Lesley was the first woman to represent New Zealand at the highest level in two sporting codes. She was a member of the first New Zealand women's hockey team to compete at the Olympic Games at Los Angeles in 1984. She also represented New Zealand in cricket and went on to captain the side in three test matches and fifteen one day internationals in a career that spanned eleven years from 1979 - 1990. In 1987 she was awarded a MBE for her services to both those sports.

She is on the Board of New Zealand Cricket and New Zealand Netball. She is also on the New Zealand Community Trust board of trustees which distributes around $40 million annually to communities throughout the country, primarily through sport related grants.

Last year, her outstanding achievements across a variety of sporting activities saw her recognised by the New Zealand Olympic Committee. She was awarded the IOC Women in Sport Achievement Diploma. These diplomas are awarded to recognise outstanding achievement and contributions made to develop, encourage and strengthen the participation of women and girls at all levels in the sports world.

Adrienne Greenwood - Lifetime Achievement Award

Adrienne Greenwood is a well-known figure within the sailing community. In addition to being involved with the sport at the grassroots coaching level, she has had a number of significant management and governance roles. She spent 14 years as CEO of Yachting New Zealand and plays a major role on the International Sailing Federation, where she currently sits as Vice President. Her other work has included four years as Chair of the Women's Sailing Committee, and from 2000-2008 she was on the Working Party on Women's Representation. She has been an Olympic selector and organiser of four Olympic trial events in New Zealand, and involved in organising three 470 World Championships.

Adrienne served on the New Zealand Sports Tribunal for eight years, and has been on the board of the Northern Mystics Netball franchise and the boards of both Auckland and New Zealand Golf. In recognition of her contribution to a number of sports she has been awarded an ONZM for her services to sport.

Barry Maister - Lifetime Achievement Award

Born into a hockey family, Barry achieved early sporting success as a New Zealand international hockey player. As a member of the New Zealand hockey team he attended three Olympic Games, winning the gold medal at the Montreal Olympic Games in 1976. In 2001 he took his background in education and leadership to become Secretary General of the New Zealand Olympic Committee. He brought an innate understanding of the Olympic Movement and understood the power of using sport to enhance the lives of human beings, bringing the best out of them. Since leaving the NZOC in 2010 he continues to provide an influence on New Zealand sport through his work as IOC Member in New Zealand and as an international advisor to Sport NZ.

Barry sits on the boards of several leading organisations including Outward Bound New Zealand, and was inducted as an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2012 for services to sport.

Steve Tew - C.K. Doig Leadership Award

As Chief Executive Officer of New Zealand Rugby since 2008, Steve Tew has guided the organisation and our national game into a position of global strength and dominance. Under his guidance, the All Blacks have scaled rugby's heights to again become world champions, and the three other major international rugby trophies are also in the cabinet - Women's 15s and Men's and Women's 7s.

He has helped create a solid platform for the future of rugby, with a strong base at the community level to ensure that everyone who wants to play rugby for enjoyment, camaraderie and belonging, can do so, while talented young players who dream of wearing the silver fern have clear pathways to follow.

Steve started his career as Secretary General of the New Zealand Universities Sports Union. For five years he organised New Zealand university tours and the ever popular annual Easter, winter and ski tournaments that still exist today.

After the Universities Sports Union he became General Manger of the Hillary Commission and then took his first role in rugby, as CEO of the Canterbury Rugby Union, when the Super Rugby competition was launched in 1996. Under his leadership, the Crusaders franchise went from last in the first season to champions many times over. By the time he left to take up a role at New Zealand Rugby he had helped turn the Crusaders into the dominant force in the southern hemisphere competition.