Howard has been a vital member within the sport, competing in and winning many of the British age-group titles, and more recently forming the Board which led British Triathlon to two Sport Governing Body of the Year Awards from the Sports Industry Group in the last three years.

Additionally, Howard served on the British Triathlon Board as independent non-executive director for business strategy offering advice to the Board and senior management on business, legal, governance and strategic matters; as well as deputising for the chair when necessary.

"I feel excited and honoured to be appointed as President and chair of the British Triathlon Federation," said Howard.

"I would like to pay tribute immediately to my predecessor Sarah Springman, without whom much of what we have achieved as a governing body would not have been possible."

The appointment adds to additional key changes from British Triathlon where last month Brendan Purcell was appointed as new performance director and Ben Bright as the new head coach.

Alistar Brownlee (left) became the first British Olympic triathlon champion during London 2012, with brother Jonathan (right) taking the bronze medal

Building on the success of the London 2012 triathlon, which saw Team GB's Brownlee brothers feature in a dramatic men's final in front of home crowds at Hyde Park which resulted in Alistair being crowned Great Britain's first ever Olympic Games champion in the sport while brother Jonny won a bronze medal, Howard commented on the future of the sport.

"Moving forward after a successful Olympic Games in which triathlon has captured the enthusiasm of the country; we need to consolidate our pre-eminent position on the world stage and to start planning for Olympic and Paralympic success in Rio in 2016," he said.

"Building for the future all starts at grass roots level and triathlon in England, Scotland and Wales is going from strength to strength.

"I hope we can work even more closely with the Home Nations in future, helping them to build participation and strengthening the performance pathways from their regional talent academies right up through our world-class programmes."

Howard's work has also involved being Great Britain age-group team manager and a triathlon club coach supporting local triathletes in the South East to achieve their personal triathlon challenges.

Howard has a tough precedent to follow from Springman, who was responsible for leading ITU's bid to place Paratriathlon on the sport programme of the Paralympic Games in Rio 2016 and for preparation of and lobbying for the successful bid to place the triathlon mixed relay on the programme in the Commonwealth Games at Glasgow in 2014.

He will serve as President of the British Triathlon Federation for the next four years leading the sport to the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

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