Badminton runs through the veins of Badminton Oceania’s Secretary General. We are proud that at the Badminton NZ Annual General Meeting over the weekend Julie Carrel was awarded a Badminton New Zealand Life Membership.
The following is an exert from the nomination for Julie’s award.
Julie has been involved in many roles throughout her badminton career as a player, coach, technical official, event manager and administrator. As a player she represented New Zealand over an 11 year period and made 26 International appearances for New Zealand including the 1990 Commonwealth Games, Uber Cup, Sudirman Cup, World Championships and White Trophy competitions as well as playing many other international individual tournaments. Julie also continued to play in the “masters” competitions after retiring internationally winning World Masters Games medals at two competitions and numerous national titles in New Zealand.
Following a successful playing career, Julie moved into coaching before being appointed Chief Executive of Badminton North Harbour, raising the bar for badminton regionally and nationally. In 2003 Julie was the inaugural recipient of the “Outstanding Contribution to Badminton in New Zealand” award. During her time at Badminton North Harbour Julie moved into the area of event managing; overseeing the inaugural Oceania Championships, the New Zealand Open as from 2005 and the World Junior Championships staged in New Zealand in 2007.
After moving on from her position at Badminton North Harbour in 2008, Julie took up the role of Event Manager for Badminton New Zealand and continued as the Event Director of the New Zealand Open as well as overseeing all national and other international tournaments in NZ. Julie continued with her quest to make the New Zealand Open the best badminton showcase in New Zealand’s history. Between 2013-2018 when Badminton New Zealand was unable to take ownership of the NZ Open, she utilised her own business taking a risk to make the event bigger and better, enticing high level players down to New Zealand. And it worked.
Julie commenced her current role as Secretary General of Badminton Oceania in 2016 taking the organisation from a staff of 1.8 to the current 7 across two countries. Julie is a Badminton World Federation Referee and is respected throughout the badminton world for her contribution, experience, and expertise.
The sport of badminton is fortunate to have someone of Julie’s caliber. The many roles covered over the last 45 years, many of them as a volunteer, is a true testament of the passion she has for our sport.
A lifetime membership award is most deserving. Congratulations!
