SportAccord general director Vincent Gaillard has been replaced by Stefan Vlad Marinescu, it was announced at the Beau Rivage Palace in Lausanne today.
The appointment of Marinescu was agreed unanimously by the SportAccord Council during a meeting held in Lausanne.
It is the first significant change agreed since Marius Vizer was elected to replace Hein Verbruggen as President of SportAccord in St Petersburg in May.
In another major development, Vizer and Arkady Rotenberg, President of the International Judo Fund and one of Russia’s most influential businessmen who is close to Vladimir Putin, have been nominated to take over as heads of the SportAccord International Convention, the biggest annual gathering of sports leaders in the world.
The decision, which still has to be rubber-stamped by the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) and the Association of International Olympic Winter Federations (AIOWF), partners of the Convention, would see Vizer and Rotenberg replace Verbruggen and Ron Froehlich, head of the International World Games Association.
Marinescu, 28, had been in charge of Vizer’s Presidential Office at the International Judo Federation (IJF) in Budapest but will relocate to Switzerland next week to take up his new role.
“It’s a huge honour for me that the President of the Council had approved this appointment,” Marinescu, a seven-time American karate champion, told insidethegames.
The Californian, a graduate of Oxford Brookes University and Army And Navy Academy, will oversee the international umbrella organization for international sports federations both Olympic and non-Olympic and for sport-related international associations.
Gaillard had joined SportAccord in March 2011 from the Coca-Cola Company where he was involved with the strategic planning and operational delivery of Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup sponsorships since 1998.
“I know I have the experience and I am looking forward to working with our members at SportAccord,” said Marinescu, who speaks five languages.
Vizer is confident that the new appointment will prove a success.
“Mr. Marinescu will bring new energy to SportAccord and with his help our organization can achieve its goals, will be better managed and can serve our federations better,” he said.
Inside the Games is an online blog of the London Organizing Committee that staged the 2012 London Games. The blog continues to cover issues that are important to the Olympic Movement. This article is reprinted here with permission of the blog editors.