It has been announced that Richard Carrión, the Puerto Rican banker who finished a strong second to Thomas Bach in last month's IOC Presidential election in Argentina, has decided to resign from "his different positions within the IOC".

The announcement is no surprise - Carrión had let it be known privately immediately after his defeat that he would move on to other interests with no hard feelings - but he will leave a big hole.

His stature as a business leader extends far beyond the Olympic Movement, as illustrated most strikingly by his position on the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, an institution at the heart of the United States banking system.

Richard Carrión, Comcast/NBC chief executive Brian Roberts and then IOC President Jacques Rogge hold the signed deal for United States television rights through 2020 that was signed in 2011

As chairman of the IOC's Finance Commission and a prominent member of its Marketing Commission, Carrión, 60, was a key figure in the building up of the IOC's financial reserves over recent years, and in driving up income received from broadcasting rights, the Movement's most lucrative revenue stream.

It was confirmed last month that broadcasting revenues had reached a colossal $3.85 billion (£2.45 billion/€2.91 billion) for the Vancouver 2010-London 2012 Olympic cycle.

This amounted to growth of not far off 50 per cent, at a time when much of the world was battling deep-seated financial and economic problems.

"It has been an extraordinary privilege and experience to have chaired the IOC Finance Commission for the past 11 years and to have fulfilled agreements that have helped secure a solid financial foundation for the Olympic Movement," Carrión told insidethegames.

"I have always thought that a new leader needs room to set a course and select his team.

"As such, I submitted my resignation for President Bach's consideration.

"I look forward to continuing my service as an IOC member, and help in any way with the new leadership's transition."

Bach has sensibly moved to try and ensure an orderly transition process by agreeing with Carrión that the Puerto Rican would "continue to lead" television negotiations already under way outside Europe until the Sochi 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Games in February.

Thomas Bach has appointed Ser Miang Ng (left), another defeated Presidential candidate, to head the next meeting of the IOC Finance Commission after Richard Carrión's decision to quit

Bach has asked Singapore's Ser Miang Ng, another defeated IOC Presidential candidate, to chair the next meeting of the IOC Finance Commission in December.

The extent of the changes that are about to sweep through the IOC's upper echelons under its new leadership was further underlined by the disclosure that veterans Arne Ljungqvist, Gerhard Heiberg and Hein Verbruggen would continue in their respective roles as chairmen of the Medical and Marketing Commissions and of the OBS until after Sochi.

The terms of all three had been set to expire after last month's IOC Session.

Today's IOC announcement also reiterates that the "composition and structure of all IOC Commissions and working groups" is to be reviewed after Sochi, in an exercise that should reveal much about the direction in which the new IOC President plans to steer the Movement.

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