The press release said it all. Neils De Vos, who has been CEO of UK Athletics since 2007, is leaving the governing body of athletics in the UK at the end of September 2018.
Neils De Vos had supporters and detractors. Supporters note a successful World Champs, strong UK teams at Beijing 2008, Berlin 2009, Daegu 2011, London 2012, Rio 2016, Moscow 2013, Beijing 2015, London 2017, and the Nike sponsorship that goes until 2030. Detractors note the loss of AVIVA as a sponsor, the removal of FastTrack as marketing partner.
We will let those discussions to another day.
Neils De Vos, photo by UK Athletics
UK ATHLETICS ANNOUNCE CHANGE OF LEADERSHIP
UK Athletics has announced that its Chief Executive, Niels de Vos, will leave the organisation after eleven years, at the end of September.
During his period of leadership British Athletics has become firmly established as one of the nation's most successful sporting teams, has delivered the hugely successful IAAF World Championships and World Para Athletics Championships, and established the Anniversary Games and this year's newly-launched Athletics World Cup as the world's most successful non-championship athletics events.
Richard Bowker, Chairman of UKA said: "Niels has been a fantastic servant to not only UKA, but the sport of Athletics as a whole. The sport has grown and been hugely successful under his leadership.
"Today's announcement is the culmination of a number of months dialogue about his ambitions to set up his own business. He leaves with our enormous thanks and we wish him well for the future.
"UK Athletics will retain his services in a limited capacity in order that a number of important issues where he has led discussions and negotiations are brought to a conclusion.
"We look to the future with confidence that UK Athletics as an organisation and the sport of Athletics in the UK are both in great shape and will begin the search for a new Chief Executive shortly."
An open recruitment process will commence shortly and in the interim, Nigel Holl, UKA's Strategy and Partnerships Director, will assume the role of Interim Chief Executive.
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