Izzy I. Ford (née Gray; born 19 January 1974) is a New Zealand local-body politician and former

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player. She served as deputy mayor of Porirua from 2016 to 2022.

Early life and family

Ford was born in

Porirua Porirua, () a list of cities in New Zealand, city in the Wellington Region of the North Island of New Zealand, is one of the four cities that constitute the Wellington#Wellington metropolitan area, Wellington metropolitan area. The name 'Poriru ...

on 19 January 1974, and was educated at Bishop Viard College. She is married to Glynn Ford, and they have three children, including Jayden Ford, who in July 2023 was the 166th-ranked amateur golfer in the world.

Rugby union

Ford made her debut for the New Zealand women's national rugby team, the

Black Ferns The New Zealand women's rugby union team, called the Black Ferns (), represents New Zealand in women's international rugby union, which is regarded as the country's national sport. The team has won six out of nine Women's Rugby World Cup tour ...

, against

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Palmerston North Palmerston North (; , colloquially known as Palmerston or Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatū Plains, the city is near the north bank of the Manaw ...

in 1999. She was named in the 2002 Women's Rugby World Cup squad for New Zealand. In 2017, Ford became the first woman appointed to the Wellington Rugby Board for 20 years; Fran Wilde had served on the board in 1996.

Local politics

Ford was first elected as a Porirua city councillor for the Eastern Ward in 2013. She was re-elected in

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

and

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, when she was the top-polling candidate in the Eastern Ward. Ford stood for the Porirua mayoralty at the 2019 local-body elections, and finished third out of six candidates. She served as the deputy mayor of Porirua from 2016 to 2022. Ford was re-elected to the council in the 2022 local elections for the Onepoto Ward.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, Izzy 1974 births Living people Rugby union players from Porirua New Zealand women's international rugby union players New Zealand female rugby union players Porirua City Councillors Deputy mayors of places in New Zealand New Zealand sports executives and administrators People educated at Bishop Viard College