Scottish Athletics CEO taking on new role

Mark Munro has been announced as director of development at UK Athletics (UKA).

He has played a pivotal role in delivering the successful development strategy across athletics in Scotland, having joined the organisation in May 2011 and served as CEO to Scottish Athletics since 2016.

He will take up his new position as part of the national governing body’s senior leadership team in the new year.

“The UKA role, which will oversee essential areas including coaching, officiating and safeguarding, will also help set the strategic and cultural direction of the organisation aligned to the UK wide strategy developed jointly with the home country athletics federations (HCAFs),” said UKA.

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Munro said: “Having been involved in athletics in Scotland since the age of eight, to have then become head of development and subsequently CEO for Scottish Athletics has been a massive honour and privilege.

“It has been fantastic to have witnessed the growth and success of the sport in Scotland over the last decade, and the clubs, coaches, officials and athletes have performed to such a high level and raised the bar to the height at which it stands today – for that I will always be grateful.

“However, I am hugely excited about my new role as development director at UK Athletics,” added the former hill running age-group international. “Development has always been a passion of mine and this is a great opportunity to connect the development of the sport across UKA and the home country athletics federations, given the progress on a unified strategy in the last six months.

“I am looking forward to help provide the strategic direction across the sport for the areas of safeguarding, coaching (development), officiating and facilities, as well as overseeing the connectivity of development in collaboration with the HCAFs focusing on club networks and systems, participation and education.”

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UKA CEO Joanna Coates said: “I’m delighted that Mark will be joining us to deliver this crucial role for UKA and the HCAFs. It was important that we appointed someone from the sport with excellent sports development and leadership credentials and an impressive ability to coordinate across both UKA and HCAFs.

“I’m looking forward to working with him closely to deliver the unified strategy and also in finalising the UKA strategy.”

Scottish Athletics will shortly begin the process of seeking a replacement CEO.