President

Greg Hartung

Greg Hartung has had an extensive career in sports administration, spanning more than 30 years. He has been President of the Australian Paralympic Committee since 1998 and is currently the Vice President of the International Paralympic Committee.

Greg was the inaugural Chief Executive of the Australian Sports Commission (1984-1988) and was a member of the interim committee of the Australian Sports Commission in 1983.  He was Deputy Chair of the Sydney Paralympic Games Organising Committee.  He was also President of the Confederation of Australian Sport from 1989 to 1995 and is a life member of that organisation. 

Greg has held a number of directorships with sporting organisations including the Australian Coaching Council.

In April 2010, Greg retired as Chair of the Australian Sports Commission and of the Australian Sports Foundation.

Also in 2010, Greg was appointed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to the Coordination Commission for the Games in Rio de Janiero, 2016.  He was also a member of the IOC Radio and Television Commission and the IOC Press Commission. He stepped down from his roles with the IOC in 2011.

Outside sport, Greg has pursued a career in business and media.

Vice Presidents

Nick Dean

Nick Dean is a Vice President of the APC Board and has been a Board member since 1996. 

Nick’s commitment to sport for people with a disability grew from his background as a ski instructor in Thredbo. Since then he has developed an interest in elite competition and participation for all athletes with a disability. This has had practical application in his appointment to successive winter Paralympic Teams since 1992 and to the Athens 2004 Team. Nick was a Deputy Chef de Mission of the 2008 and 2010 Paralympic Team.

Nick was awarded the Australian Sports Medal in 2000, and is a past President of DWA (Disabled WinterSport Australia).  Nick was awarded the APC’s highest honour, the Paralympic Medal in 2005 for his commitment to sport for people with a disability.

Nick lives and works in Adelaide as Colliers International’s consultant to the Australian Wine Industry; a role which complements the Dean family’s business as a major supplier of grapes to Petaluma Wines (Lion Nathan Ltd).

Paul Bird

Two-time Paralympian (1980 and 1984) Paul Bird has been a member of the Australian Paralympic Committee Board since 1993.
 
As a Paralympian, Paul was appointed Australian Team Captain in 1984 and won gold and silver medals in swimming. He was appointed to the Australian Paralympic Team staff as a Section Manager in Seoul (1988) and held the positions of Assistant Chef de Mission in Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996) and Beijing (2008).

Paul was appointed Chef de Mission for the Australian Paralympic Teams in Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004) as well as the FESPIC Games in Bangkok (1999), Pusan (2002) and Assistant Chef de Mission in Kuala Lumpur (2006). Paul was elected President of the Oceania Paralympic Committee in December 2005.

In 2010, Paul was awarded the APC’s highest honour, the Paralympic Medal, for his leadership roles with Australian Teams and his contribution to the development of the Australian Paralympic Committee over the past 30 years.

Outside of sport, Paul is a lifelong educator who currently owns a childcare centre. His career with Education Queensland began in 1976 and saw him recognised as a leading school principal in country and metropolitan Queensland for 21 years. He is currently undertaking a research PHD in the area of Early Literacy and is a consultant in early intervention services.

Board Members

John Croll

John Croll is the Chief Executive Officer of Sentia Media. Since he became CEO in 1999, the company has grown from an east coast Australian company with 180 employees to a company that services more than 5,000 clients in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and China with more than 690 employees across the region. 

John is also one of the Vice Presidents of the International Industry Association that represents companies with global revenues in the billions. 

He also sits on the Boards of The Australian Science Media Centre and The Salvation Army Media Advisory Board. 

In regard to sport, John and Sentia Media have been supporters of the APC and Rowing Australia for many years. John has attended a number of Paralympic Games and assisted APC senior staff in media and marketing planning. He was elected to the APC Board in 2008.

Doug Denby

Doug Denby has been Director for Finance for the APC Board since 1996.

A Chartered Accountant by profession, Doug has been involved in disabled sport for over 25 years, particularly through the equestrian organisation, Riding for the Disabled (RDA).  

At RDA, he held the position as auditor prior to being elected President of the National body in the 1990s, a position he held for eight years. He was Treasurer of the NSW State Body for over 18 years and was also Treasurer for “Tall Timbers”, the largest horse riding centre for people with disabilities in New South Wales. He has recently retired after six years as the Treasurer of the international body, Federation of Riding for the Disabled International (FRDI).  

Doug also holds the position of Treasurer of the Pony Club Association of NSW and is involved in establishing the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) discipline of Vaulting in Australia.
 
In 2004, he was selected as an Assistant Chef de Mission to accompany the Australian team to the Athens Paralympic Games.

Steve Loader

Steve Loader has been an APC Board member since 2004 and is Chair of the APC’s Awards Committee.

Steve has been engaged in sports marketing and sponsorship for over 18 years including significant involvement with many Australian and international sporting federations and major sporting events.  He has also been a Board Member of Skiing Australia and Rowing Australia.

Steve is currently working in consultancy roles including with the World Academy of Sport and is a Visiting Fellow with the Manchester Business School through the Manchester University providing lectures on various sports and event related topics including corporate sponsorship. In addition, he is a Fellow of the Institute of Sports Management and was a recipient of the Australian Sports Medal in 2000.

Steve was the Transport and Logistics Manager for the 2008 Australian Paralympic Team in Beijing and attended the 2004 Athens and 2006 Torino Paralympic Games as part of the APC Sponsors and Supporters Team.

Joyce Parszos

Joyce is a marketing and communications consultant with a extensive background in bringing arts, medical science and sports projects successfully into the national and international public arena.
 
Joyce has provided marketing and communications services to academics, journalists, medical scientific research professionals, corporate entities and universities, as well as local, state, federal and international governments.

The first Public Relations and Development Manager of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Joyce has also worked as a public servant, directing several key Public Affairs program with the Motor Accidents Authority of NSW.

Joyce currently serves as a director on the boards of Disabled Winter Sport Australia, Viscopy Ltd (Australian visual arts copyright collections agency), the Music and Opera Singers Trust Ltd and is a Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

In 2000, Joyce was awarded the Australian Sports Medal.

Troy Sachs, OAM, ASM

Troy Sachs is five time Paralympian (1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008) in men’s wheelchair basketball and has also played professional wheelchair basketball in Italy and Germany. 

Troy has extensive experience in international and domestic sport as well as in the corporate sector in communications and client management. He is the Founder and Director of Team Sachs, which he established in 1997. 

Troy is a motivational and corporate speaker within Team Sachs, as well as providing individuals and organisations with fitness programs and dietary knowledge. 

Troy was elected to the APC Board in 2008.

Glenn Tasker

With 20 years of extensive sporting administration experience, Glenn is currently the Chief Executive Officer for Tennis NSW. He was formerly the Chief Executive Officer for Swimming Australia. 

In 2009, Glenn was appointed to the International Paralympic Committee's Swimming Sports Technical Committee.

During his time at Swimming Australia, he assisted with establishing the swimming Paralympic Preparation Program, working with both the APC and the International Paralympic Committee to achieve better outcomes for swimmers with a disability.
 
As a Competition Manager for the 2000 Sydney Paralympic Games, he was committed and ensured the Paralympic experience for all the athletes and team officials was in the “best ever” category.

The Swimming Paralympic Preparation Program is one of Swimming Australia’s flagship programs and sees many Paralympic Preparation Program activities integrated into the National Team Program, including training camps and competitions.

Glenn was elected to the APC Board in 2008.

Jason Hellwig, Chief Executive Officer

Jason has previously served the Australian Paralympic Committee as a Director of the Board from 2002-2003 and as Head of Sport from 2003-2009.  Jason is currently the Chairperson of the International Paralympic Committee's Sport Technical Committee, Athletics.

Jason's sport administration and Paralympic experience are appropriate credentials to lead the Australian Paralympic Committee in its future development and promotion through well executed sport and competition related programs and commercial agreements.

Jason's sport administration experience commenced in Darwin when he was appointed the General Manager of Northern Territory Athletics, where he was responsible for the management and delivery of sport within the Northern Territory.

Jason moved from Darwin to Victoria in 1995 to take up the role of National Development Officer at Athletics Australia.  In 1995, he was promoted to Athletics Australia's National Development Manager where he was responsible for the management of the national development program and Athletics Australia's overall business planning processes. In consultation with stakeholders he produced and commenced the delivery of the Athletics Australia strategic plan "Change 1996-2000" that aimed to reinvigorate the organisation and position it for sustained success.

In 1999, Jason was appointed to the role of General Manager, Athletics Australia and in that role was responsible for establishing and managing a partnership framework with state associations and key stakeholder groups, as well as managing the relationship with the Australian Sports Commission and management of the organisation's national development program and associated commercial and government partnerships.

From 2003-2010, Jason served as the Director of Sport for the Australian Paralympic Committee. In this role, he managed the APC's sports business and created a number of new operations in the areas of talent identification and development, education, events, classification and member services.

Jason was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the APC in 2010, and was Chef de Mission of the 2012 Australian Paralympic Team for the London Paralympic Games.