Former Netball Australia boss Kate Palmer has been appointed the new chief executive officer of the Australian Sports Commission.
Palmer replaces Simon Hollingsworth, who resigned this year after five years with the ASC, and will become the first woman in the role in 31 years.
![Kate Palmer has landed her "dream job".](/web/20161220000601im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/n/c/l/s/i/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gta87u.png/1481661097935.jpg)
"This is my dream job," said Palmer, who quit her former position two weeks ago.
"I am excited about the challenge of improving Australia's competitiveness at the highest levels of world sport.
"We have a lot of strengths to build on in the Australian sporting system, but we also need to look very hard at what we can do better for the future."
ASC chair John Wylie praised Palmer for her "exceptional" work in her decade as Netball Australia CEO.
Palmer not only led the development of the now-defunct trans-Tasman competition but also the new eight-team Super Netball league set to replace it next year.
She helped secure the hosting rights to last year's Netball World Cup and was also behind a raft of broadcasting and sponsorship arrangements for netball, tripling the sport's revenue in the past seven years.
Wylie believes the commission has found the right person to steer sporting reform after the disappointing medal tally at the Rio Olympics this year and amid declining results across the board at international level.
"The ASC CEO is the pre-eminent leadership role in Australian sport," Wylie said.
"This is an important time in Australian sport and the ASC board has no doubt that Kate is the right person to lead our mission, which is to ensure Australia remains a sporting and healthy nation that can both achieve success at the highest levels of international sport and thrive in our community participation."
Palmer will begin as CEO at the end of January.
AAP