Triathlon Ireland has appointed Chris Kitchen as the new Chief Executive Officer, replacing Matt McKerrow who has left to take up a position in New Zealand sport.
Kitchen is an experienced business professional and has been involved in sports administration through senior roles with British Triathlon and the International Triathlon Union.
His business background is in information technology and he is a director of Nov8 Solutions, billing itself as a provider of technical solutions for Africa. This may enable a relationship with Niall Quinn‘s QSat which operates in a similar space and has developed relations with intergovernmental agencies especially across west Africa.
Kitchen got involved as an athlete in triathlon in the mid 80’s and went on to set up a local Triathlon club in the south of England, Chiltern Triathletes, in 1989.
He became a race referee in 1992, Qualified as one of the first Level 3 Coaches in the UK in 1994, helped write and deliver the early Level 1 and 2 Coach Education programmes and has run many coaching courses.
His high performance background is likely to be welcomed by many of the elite athletes including Gavin Noble (pictured) who competed at the London Olympics.
He competed for Britain at the ITU World Long Distance Championships and in 2002, he became the British Triathlon Association Long Distance Elite Team Manager. He has been the race director of numerous triathlon events including a Children’s Triathlon which is in its 15th year and acted as ITU Team Leader in World Championship events around the World.
He was one of the key players in the British Triathlon’s modernisation programme and in January 2007 was appointed as Director with the Performance Portfolio to the British Triathlon Board. He was a part of the Board which oversaw a transition to a company with substantial reserves, significant growth and medal success in London 2012. Heavily involved in the High Performance Programme, Kitchen led the strategic direction, chaired the elite selection panels across all disciplines and reported to the Board on Performance matters.
The ITU Congress in Auckland saw him re-elected onto the ITU Multisport Committee where he now acts as Chair in the strategic development of Duathlon, Long Distance Triathlon, Cross Triathlon, Winter Triathlon and Aquathlon worldwide.
“I am absolutely delighted to have been appointed as CEO,” said Kitchen. “Triathlon in Ireland is really buoyant and exciting with a growing membership supported by coaches and technical officials and of course some great events. I have a great team behind me, both staff and volunteers, a supportive board and I am really looking forward to seeing what I can do to help develop Triathlon Ireland for triathletes in Ireland.”The organisation will be among the first sports outside Athletics to use the new AIT International Indoor Arena in Athlone when it hosts a talent identification day there on April 7th and a number of new commercial partnerships are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
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