Commonwealth Games Australia Chief Executive Officer, Craig Phillips has been recognised as a finalist for the AIS Leadership Award, with the winner to be announced at The Star in Sydney on 13 December 2018.

The AIS has announced four finalists for both the Leadership Award and Emerging Athlete of the Year in the AIS Sport Performance Awards (#ASPAs), the annual celebration of Australian high performance sport.

Finalists for the Leadership Award are:

• Craig Phillips (Commonwealth Games Australia): Phillips has been CEO of Commonwealth Games Australia since July 2015, driving strategic change. He was a member of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation (GOLDOC) Board, which helped deliver the successful home games.

• Ian Chesterman (Olympic Winter Institute of Australia): First appointed Chef de Mission of the Australian team for the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympic Games, he has held the role for six consecutive Winter Olympics. Chesterman has also been appointed Chef de Mission for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, surpassing the record of John Coates AC and Geoff Henke AO as a six-time Chef de Mission of an Australian Olympic Team.

• Lynne Anderson (Australian Paralympic Committee): Appointed CEO of the Australian Paralympic Committee in 2015, Anderson has led significant progress, addressing organisational reform and rebuilding its financial strength. Her leadership at the senior level provided a solid platform for Australian athletes who performed at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Paralympics and 2018 Commonwealth Games.

• David Bell (Diving): Bell is the CEO of Diving Australia (DA) and since commencing in June 2013 has recreated the sport, especially at the high performance level. DA’s high performance program is both innovative and collaborative, one of very few Australian sports to have medalled in the last six Olympic Games.

Finalists have now been revealed for all award categories, which include:

• The Sport Australia Award for integrity, fair play and sportsmanship
• Male Athlete of the Year
• Female Athlete of the Year
• Para-performance of the Year
• Team of the Year
• High Performance Program of the Year
• Coach of the Year

In addition to these awards, the AIS, in partnership with ABC Grandstand, has also launched a public vote to determine the ABC Sport Personality of the Year and Best Sporting Moment of the past 12 months. ABC Grandstand is the media partner for the AIS Sport Performance Awards and Australians can vote at aisawards.abc.net.au from now until 5pm AEDT on 9 December, 2018.