Sally Gray

Sally has been involved with WorldSkills since 2004 when she was asked to organise the Otago/Southland Regional competitions in Dunedin. She was a team leader for the Otago/Southland Team at the 2004 National Competition in Auckland.

In 2008 Sally was asked to join the WorldSkills staff as the Events Co-ordinator. In this role, she liaised with the Regional Committees and Skill Managers to ensure regional competitions ran smoothly; oversaw the organisation and running of the National Competitions; and organised the logistics for getting the international team and their tools to the international competitions.

Sally was able to attend the 2013 WorldSkills competition in Leipzig, Germany and the 2015 competition in Sao Paulo, Brazil as part of the WorldSkills International Secretariat, working in the Competition Support Team.

In 2015, as part of the preparation for the international competition, New Zealand ran a small international competition – WorldSkills Oceania. Sally was pivotal in making this hugely successful competition happen.

Sally officially retired from WorldSkills after the national competition in 2016 so she could focus on family and get out tramping more. She did, however, come back as a volunteer to the 2018 national competition to help with the computer marking system. In April 2021 she was approached by the new General Manager to ask if she would be prepared to come back on board as the Operations Co-ordinator. She is now working as part of both the Competition Support and Management Teams to promote WorldSkills and oversee the organisation of regional and national competitions.

“WorldSkills is an amazing organisation. The competitions enable the competitors to grow both their industry knowledge and their own personal development. The competitors often get put into situations that challenge and push them to extremes. It is all part of the business of training the industry leaders of the future. I am honoured to be part of this process.”