Softball Australia announced Peter Jon Hartshorne (PJ) as the new Chairperson of the governing body's Board of Directors. With the appointment of Hartshorne, Softball Australia is confident of a smooth transition from current Chair John Hollingsworth, whose nine-year tenure on the Board comes to a mandatory end in October 2020.
Hartshorn will take over the position with Australia ranked eighth in the WBSC Women's Softball World Rankings and fifth in the world in the men's discipline.
The Softball Australia Women's National Team will be featured at next year's Olympics in Japan, having won the WBSC Asia/Oceania Olympic Softball Qualifier last September in Shanghai, China.
“PJ stepping into the Chairperson role is a great result, he’s well across all of our current projects and is already bringing his extensive business knowledge to our organisation with a number of initiatives well underway,” said David Pryles, Chief Executive Officer at Softball Australia. “We look forward to working with PJ in advancing softball in Australia.”
Hollingsworth Chaired his final Board Meeting on Thursday and will step away from the Board at the AGM in October with Hartshorne elected to fill the role by his fellow Board Members, effective immediately. Hollingsworth joined the Softball Australia Board in April 2011 and was appointed Chairperson in October 2014.