Athletics Ireland have been without a chief executive since July after Mary Coghlan was removed from the position in controversial circumstances, following a motion by the Athletics Ireland board.

Foley’s appointment is initially for a three-month period to allow time for a more permanent replacement to be found, and at least brings some stability to Athletics Ireland after over 12 months of turmoil.

Foley was an outstanding athlete back in the early 1970’s who attended an athletics scholarship at McNeese State University in the United States.

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In 1975 he graduated from McNeese with a degree in Business Management and, on his return to Ireland, he worked with Johnson and Johnson in Dublin before being appointed director of marketing with Bord na Móna.
 

He later became marketing manager and sales and marketing director of Waterford Crystal, before being appointed chief executive in 2000.

He resigned in January 2009 after Waterford Wedgwood went into receivership as a result of the worldwide economic crisis.

Coghlan has lodged High Court proceedings against the Irish Sports Council and Athletics Ireland over the nature of her dismissal, and that case is due to be heard next month.

But Liam Hennessy, the President of Athletics Ireland, hopes that Foley's appointment will help restore stability as the sport begins its preparations for the London 2012 Olympics.
 

He said: "We are delighted to have somebody of John Foley’s calibre to lead us into the future.
 

"An outstanding man in his field, he commands worldwide respect but what makes him an ideal choice from our point of view is that, apart from his background in management and marketing, he is a former athlete with a great love and understanding of the sport.
 

"Sports wise this has been a very successful year for us.

"At international level we had Mary Cullen and Derval O’Rourke winning medals at the European Indoor Championships, then we had Ciara Mageean medalling at [the] World Youths and David McCarthy at European under-23 level.
 

"Then we had a very good World Championships in Berlin with Olive Loughnane leading the way with her silver medal in the 20k walk and Derval O’Rourke and David Gillick also making finals."