The Australian is up against India’s Narinder Batra and Ireland’s David Balbirnie in the race to replace the outgoing Leandro Negre, with the Spaniard’s term in office coming to an end after eight years in the role.

Among his main focuses is improving governance, something which the FIH is currently striving to implement across all areas of the organisation in-line with Olympic Agenda 2020's recommendations.

With an acknowledgement to the turbulence surrounding many other sports at the moment, Read said: "Sport is under threat, not only from drugs and gambling, but also from governance that is either incompetent or corrupt.

"I have a passion to ensure the highest standards of governance in our sport."

Read is a former national team goalkeeper and was part of the side that finished runners-up to hosts Pakistan at the inaugural Hockey Champions Trophy in 1978 in Lahore.

He remains an active player at club level on the field - no longer as a goalkeeper - and has also served as Australia’s coach at the World Student Games and as the country’s team manager.

When his top-level playing days were over, Read turned to officiating and administrating the game, taking on roles with the Hockey Australia Board and the FIH.

Much of his time during the past few years has been spent working on an event model aimed at growing interest in the sport, thus increasing viewing popularity and income.

Read is currently chair of the Hockey Tasmania Board, a position he will resign if he is elected as President, and holds the same role within the FIH Event Portfolio Panel, FIH Event Evaluation Panel and FIH Competitions Committee.

As well as playing and coaching the game, he has also been a technical director at two men’s World Cup events and the Beijing 2008 Olympics Games.

"My vision is for the Hockey Revolution to fund the development of the game worldwide and to provide every young person in every nation with the dream that they can compete at the Olympics in the magnificent sport of hockey," added Read, who has been chair of the FIH Competitions Committee for the past eight years.

"I am committed to chairing the FIH Board in a collaborative manner.

"In this way all continents will have a voice, everyone will be listened to.

"Our sport will benefit as a result."

Read’s candidacy has been backed by John Coates, vice-president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and President of the Australian Olympic Committee. 

"For me, the most relevant strengths that Mr Read can bring to the Presidency, apart from being a President for all hockey playing nations, is his legal training and current practice as senior counsel, which provides a strong sense of ethics and governance, and his chairmanship of key FIH Committees and Panels, which provides an excellent contemporary knowledge of the strategic direction and operational requirements of this most important Olympic International Federation," he said.

David Hatt, President of Hockey Australia, added: "Ken Read has been an outstanding servant to hockey for many years and in a multitude of guises.

"His influence has been felt throughout the sport, from his home state of Tasmania, across Australia and on the global stage through his roles with the FIH."

Negre could have chosen to run for a third term, but has surprisingly opted against standing, having claimed in January that he would stand and expected to be re-elected unopposed.

Each of the three candidates to replace him were officially nominated by their National Associations.

Batra serves as the President of Hockey India, having been unanimously elected into the post in 2014.

He is also the vice-president of the Asian Hockey Federation, the associate vice-president of the Indian Olympic Association and the chairman of the Hockey India League, as well as being an existing FIH Board member.

Ireland’s Balbirnie served for 20 years in the European Hockey Federation, with roles as an Executive Board member and honorary general secretary.