From sports to uni students Cate Sexton

Two years ago, Cate Sexton finished the mammoth task of helping facilitate the 2021 Women’s Rugby World Cup. Now, she’s tackling a new adventure, at the helm of the University of Canterbury Students’ Association (UCSA). Metropol writer Nina Tucker chats with her about her latest move.

Jumping from the high performance sports arena to tertiary education is bringing new challenges to UCSA’s new CEO, Cate Sexton.
Now in her second month in the job, Cate has been warmly welcomed, adding it is starting to feel more familiar with each day. Focusing on the student voice, Cate considers the UCSA a “well-oiled machine,” and she’s looking forward to implementing even more conversations around the needs of each student to thrive in their studies.

She’s “big on a sense of belonging, and supporting students and staff”. With her ability to get the best out of people, Cate looks forward to doing just that, “by getting staff to bring their best self to work, we can build a student experience like no other, that’s what I’m after,” she explains.

To understand Cate’s work style and ethics is to step back in time to the start of her career in high performance sport. That started with a phone call. New Zealand Cricket reached out at the start of 2000, hoping she might manage the White Ferns. Cate hung up. “I said, ‘You have the wrong number.’”

When they persisted, Cate decided to take a leap. “I’m proud of myself for taking that opportunity. It definitely led to my career in high performance sport.” Years later, when new opportunities present themselves, she continues to live by that same energy. “When these opportunities come up, I take them if it feels right, and I see where it takes me.”

On her recent return to Christchurch with her family, the position as Chief Executive of the UCSA posed the same opportunity.
“When this role popped up, I felt the same,” she confirms.

Between cricket and rugby, Cate’s track record in top-level performance sport runs high. With powerhouses like Cate pushing for change, sport and women’s rugby has grown substantially in recent years.

After a stint with the White Ferns and Black Ferns, Cate began a new role, Head of Women’s Rugby, in 2015. “The union was really committed to making women’s rugby a strategic focus.” Implementing a seven-year strategy dedicated to this cause,
Cate built her team and focused on creating more opportunities for women and girls to play at the community level, ultimately increasing the number of women continuing with rugby after primary and high school. “The more you see it [women’s rugby],
the more it becomes normal,” she says.

As the women’s game support grew, an opportunity presented to professionalise women’s rugby. Building new high performance competitions, such as Super Rugby Aupiki, and the Black Ferns becoming full-time professionals, many women now consider this a viable career path.

Along the way, Cate facilitated more coaches and referees and began the capping recognition tradition for ex-Black Ferns, to those playing now; “all these wonderful things that now, are just normal”.

Sponsorships and partnerships are growing, and provincial unions are building on commercial opportunities, proving that taking a small chance to see what can be done can result in large advances. “There were a few prongs in the fire, and we just went for it,” she says.
After her success, came the time to step away and leave space for the next crew to make their mark. She has made lifelong connections, all of who have a place in her heart, and Cate enjoys watching those athletes “thrive and become their best self, through school or winning world cups on the world stage”.

Part of her work ethic is to produce more for people and organisations around her, centering her focus on achieving “sustainable success”. A guiding principle, this is something she constantly looks to do in each job she takes. “Winning on the world stage is great, but the joy that I get is creating opportunities for individuals.”

A woman in business, Cate still relies on her support system, or the lawnmower for her two-hectare block, when her mind becomes preoccupied. “I get outside in my old clothes and mow grass.”

This may seem a mundane task, yet it’s Cate’s escape to relaxation and fresh air. “It’s not always plain sailing, I’m lucky to have a very supportive family,” she explains.

Understanding the importance of flexibility for families, and valuing this for her own staff, she knows it is often a juggle.
Given her legacy in high performance sport, it’s a juggle Cate is more than capable of nailing for university students.