Kelly Baxter, Spark New Zealand

Kelly Baxter, Spark New Zealand
Rising Stars 2020

Company: Spark New Zealand
Job title: Legal business partner & senior legal counsel

Kelly Baxter joined the Spark Legal team in July 2017 and hit the ground running, consistently delivering exceptional outcomes across a variety of legal matters across Spark business units. She’s helped generate revenue in excess of $2.5bn/annum and built strong relationships across the business including with Spark’s most senior stakeholders. Baxter played a pivotal role in Spark’s delivery of RWC 2019 – leading on contractual and legal aspects of both Spark’s successful bid and subsequent tournament delivery. She has also been instrumental in the successful bids for several premium content deals including NBA, EPL, Formula 1 and most recently, a transformational six-year strategic partnership with NZ Cricket. Baxter is highly valued by Spark’s executive and legal teams. Her strong business acumen and ability to engage senior stakeholders is remarkable when considered in context of her years of experience.