The NZR appointments and remuneration panel last night confirmed the selection of nine candidates for the board, radically reshaped after a lengthy review.
Davenport and Catherine Savage are the only current board members to make the cut.
The appointments now have to be ratified by NZR’s voting members, the 26 provincial unions and the New Zealand Māori Rugby Board.
The ratification ballot closes at 5pm on December 17. Each appointment requires the support of a majority of the voting members to be ratified, and there is one vote per member.
Davenport was the first woman to be appointed to the head of a major New Zealand union board when she became Otago Rugby Football Union chairwoman in 2019.
She joined the NZR board in April 2022 and is now the head of its people, safety and wellbeing committee, and serves on the risk, investment and audit committee. She is also the NZR board representative on the Rugby Foundation.
Davenport was the chief executive at Gallaway Cook Allan lawyers in Dunedin before returning to MTF Finance, where she previously worked for 17 years, to head their credit function.
Wellington-based Savage was the managing director of AMP Capital Investors, and is an independent director of Beca Group and the Pacific Pension Institute.
She is also a chartered fellow of the Institute of Directors, and co-chairwoman of Women Corporate Directors New Zealand.
Former long-serving All Blacks hooker Keven Mealamu is among the other seven candidates set to form the first new-look board.
Mealamu played 132 tests in a 15-year professional career and has since thrown himself into community and governance roles, including six years on the Auckland rugby board.
The other prominent ex-player on the list is 1987 World Cup-wining captain David Kirk.
His bulging CV includes various business roles and directorships, including time as the chairman of Forsyth Barr, Trade Me and the Hoyts Group. Kirk, a Rhodes Scholar, was also the boss of Fairfax Media, and has been chairman of the New Zealand Rugby Players Association since 2000.
The other candidates are Te Papa board member and Massey University pro-chancellor Caren Rangi, Trust Tairawhiti chief executive and New Zealand Maori rugby deputy chairman Doug Jones, Crusaders chairman and former Deloitte partner Grant Jarrold, Auckland-based International Cricket Council chairman Greg Barclay, and professional independent director and former Air New Zealand chief information officer Julia Raue.
"We believe we have selected nine exceptional candidates and are confident our recommendations meet constitutional requirements, the requisite skills and needs, and the desire for both continuity and a fresh perspective," ARP chairwoman Rachel Taulelei said.
The board-elect met late last week and collectively agreed Kirk would be the chairman-elect.
The new NZR board is to take office no later than February 1.
