Ian McDonald

Ian McDonald and his wife own a motel business in Greytown. Ian trained as a broadcast journalist in the early 1990’s and worked in radio as a news and sports journalist for a number of years. He moved to Australia in 1996 and spent the next decade working in customer service roles before completing a Bachelor of Sports (Management) degree at Unitec in Auckland. Ian then worked with the New Zealand Rugby Players Association, researching former professional players on their transition from sport to a new life, followed by a role with the Halberg Trust (now Halberg Disability Sports Foundation) from which he was retired on medical grounds after an unsuccessful hip replacement operation. He now uses a powered wheelchair to get around. After a few years volunteering with Baseball New Zealand, he became a fulltime staff member. Ian was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2019 and travelled to the United States to research communications within the baseball industry.