AIS CEO Peter Conde standing down after successful Tokyo Games

06 October 2021

Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) CEO Peter Conde has announced he will stand down from the role in the new year, following the success of the Tokyo Games.

Australian Sports Commission Chair Josephine Sukkar thanked Mr Conde, who joined the AIS in 2017 and has been central in evolving the nation’s high performance sport system.

“Peter has led the AIS brilliantly in his four years at the helm, creating an environment that has allowed our high performance athletes to deliver at their best,” said Ms Sukkar.

“His stewardship of the Australian high performance sporting system culminated in the outstanding performances we saw from our Australian Olympic and Paralympic teams in Tokyo.

“The positive influence of the AIS in Tokyo was everywhere to be seen. We will carry that forward as we embark on the green and gold runway towards Brisbane 2032.

“Peter has been instrumental in developing a world leading athlete wellbeing and engagement function, improving our data analytics and insights capabilities and collaborating successfully with the National Institute Network on the first ever National High Performance Sport Strategy.

“Peter will leave a wonderful platform, including unprecedented long-term funding for the full next Games cycle through to Paris 2024.”

Mr Conde, said he’ll look back fondly on his time leading the AIS.

“I would like to thank the ASC Board and staff for the privileged opportunity to lead the AIS,” Mr Conde said.

“As a team, I believe we have made a substantial difference to the Australian high performance sport system and have created the conditions for us to succeed.

“I am so proud that, even against the backdrop of COVID, we have been part of the biggest performance turnaround in Australian Olympic history.

I have always talked about the goal of creating sustainable success, so I had to think hard about the timing of my decision. Given we are at the start of a new Games cycle, now seems like the best time to minimise disruption to the high performance system.”

Over the past four years Mr Conde highlighted the AIS has:

• Enhanced collaboration across the system, including the first ever National High Performance Sport Strategy signed by all federal and state/territory governments
• Transformed the AIS to a system leader that does the big things on the frontiers of HP sport that no one else is positioned to do
• Developed a more transparent and collaborative approach to sport investment, including significant increases in Paralympic investment
• Secured Federal Government support for and deployed new Performance Pathways investment
• Developed a world-leading Athlete Wellbeing & Engagement function from scratch
• Created a new data analytics and insights capability
• Built a new capability in Applied Technology and Innovation, including video machine learning, other software capabilities and excellent engineering
• Offered high level HR support including talent acquisition, workforce planning, leadership and culture development across the sporting system
• Addressed “performance under pressure” capability through the Gold Medal Ready program in a new partnership with the Australian Army

Mr Conde will finish January 5 and Ms Sukkar said it would enable a smooth and seamless transition.