2011 Judges

Judging for the awards is a rigorous process that was overseen in 2011 by head judge Dr Nigel Harris, and included a panel of four  judges.

Dr Nigel Harris, Head Judge

Nigel has been integral to the education and training of more than 2000 fitness instructors and personal trainers over his 10+ years as a senior lecturer at AUT University in Auckland, in addition, he has written and presented extensively in the international fitness and exercise science community.  He takes an active role in Personal Training of both athletes and the general public seeking to enhance their fitness.  Nigel is also the current chair of FitnessNZ.

Dave Liow is the specialist judge for Personal Training awards.

Dave has a varied and substantual career in the fitness industry.  Dave is currently the Academic Director of CEF Seminars. He has been a personal trainer for 18 years and has educated and mentored hundreds of trainers over the years in the technical and business skills of personal training.


Broni McSweeney is the owner of Catch Fitness and has 15 years experience in the fitness industry. Now a business lecturer on the personal training courses at both AUT and CPIT she was also the Body Trainer and Exercise Science tutor at Circo Arts until the recent earthquakes.   In 2010 she won the Fitness New Zealand Lecturer of the Year Award and in that same year was a Finalist in the Bella Fitness Mentor Category.

Sue Twomey is a specialist Group Exercise Judge.  With 25 years in the fitness industry teaching group fitness  classes  and 15 years Personal Training as well as her own “Kidz keep Active” program, and past NZ Network Presenter, Sue has a wealth of experience.  Sue has a Sports Diploma, tutors part time for CPIT, is the Event Organiser for NZCAF (NZ competitive Aerobics and Hiphop Dance) Canterbury, and previous Head Judge of NZCAF.

Conflicts Policy

All judges are of world class standard, and many are well connected to the New Zealand fitness industry. This means from time to time they may have existing dealings with some of the award applicants.  All judges also all follow a strict conflicts policy, and they do not make decisions related to these any award entries where an applicant has a significant involvement with the judge.

Finalists Process

A potential finalists list for each category were established, and these potential finalists then underwent a further series of checks including:

  • All finalists were visited/checked by a judge’s representative at least once.
  • Many of the visits were mystery shopped (where the finalist is unaware of the person’s involvement with the awards).
  • Mystery shops involved many formats – from physical visits, phone calls and/or emails.
  • On site visits for facilities involved short surveys of members using the facility (the judges choose who to ask).
  • Additional checks are in place that are not listed here – so there will are always some surprises for finalists!