Dame Susan Devoy

Susan Devoy is one of New Zealand's most successful sporting champions ever. For nine years Susan was almost unbeatable on the world squash courts.
Former New Zealand squash player, Dame Susan Devoy, was ranked Number One in the world continuously from 1983 until her retirement in October 1992, when she achieved her fourth World Women's Squash Championship. She has, remarkably, won the British Open Squash Championship eight times, the last in April 1992 when she was delighted to regain that title having lost it the previous year.
Susan was named New Zealand Sportswoman of the Year in 1985, 1987 and 1988. A Member of the British Empire and Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for her achievements in squash, in 1998 Susan became a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit - the youngest New Zealander since Sir Edmund Hillary to receive such a high accolade from the Queen.
In the same year she had walked the length of New Zealand fund-raising for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Now, as mother of four children, she continues her fund-raising work as Chairman of the Halberg Trust.
Dame Susan Devoy is Chief Executive of Sport Bay of Plenty.
Dame Susan is an entertaining and motivational speaker, who speaks with warmth and conviction. She draws on personal experiences from both on and off the court, and shows the professionalism that ranked her the world's number one squash player for almost a decade.
In her years as a professional squash player on the International circuit Susan Devoy has collected a host of entertaining anecdotes. She also faced the continual day-to-day challenge of goal setting and motivation. On these subjects she can speak from her personal experience and the "tried and true" methods she used to motivate herself to ever greater heights.
At age six Susan Devoy played her first game of squash. She was a professional squash player at 17 and the World's Number One at twenty. She will be remembered as one of the world's greatest ever squash player for her individuality and determination.
When she retired in 1992, Susan was the current Australian, British, Hong Kong, Scottish, Irish, Swedish, French, New Zealand and World Squash Champion. She had won the World Open Squash Championships four times and the British Open Squash Championship eight times. In 1985 she was named New Zealand Sportsman of the Year and in 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1993 Sportswomen of the Year.