Lynette Grace, who comes to the role after working in a high performance rugby environment for more than 13 years, will help the country's athletes on their way to their targets of 18 medals at Rio 2016, two at Pyeongchang 2018 and 22 at Tokyo 2020.

She has recently moved from Netball New Zealand where she held the role of high performance projects manager and will now be responsible for leading the relationship management with the national sports organisations and national disability sports organisations across the 22 Paralympic sports overseen by PNZ.

Among her first assignments will be a site visit to Rio de Janeiro on December 9 and 10 with New Zealand's Paralympic Chef de Mission Ben Lucas to witness the Brazilian city's preparations for the Games.

"I have followed Paralympic sport for many years and have seen exponential growth in its professionalism and that of the athletes," Grace said.

"The London 2012 and Sochi 2014 Paralympic Games were a tremendous success for New Zealand and I look forward to helping shape the future growth and success of Paralympic sport in New Zealand."

Helen Baillie-Strong is PNZ's new business administration manager ©PNZ


PNZ also revealed a further two new appointments in the form of Sian Allen as its new performance analyst and Helen Baillie-Strong as its business administration manager.

Allen, who previously worked at High Performance Sport NZ as a performance physiologist, will be tasked with developing, refining and maintaining analysis tools and performance models to advance the evidence-based practice within the PNZ high performance programme.

Baillie-Strong, meanwhile, comes to PNZ from Orion Health and brings more than six years worth of experience in similar roles.

"We are thrilled to have Lynette, Sian and Helen on board in roles that are critical to ensure that New Zealand Paralympians are best supported to perform on the international stage," Fiona Allan, PNZ chief executive, said.

"As the level of competition and professionalism continues to grow in Paralympic sport we must continue to innovate by having the right people, technology and structures in place."

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