Favier completes director of performance Peter Keen’s three-strong senior management team alongside Dr Scott Drawer, head of research and innovation, and Chelsea Warr, head of athlete development.

Favier will lead a team who work directly with the Olympic and Paralympic sports, to support their World Class Performance Programmes, and lead interventions to bring about significant improvements where the need is identified through Mission 2012.

Keen said: “We welcome Matt Favier to this key appointment within UK Sport.

"He has coached a junior world champion, managed the programmes of Olympic medal winning athletes and their coaches and has extensive experience of facilitating support service delivery.

"We believe his enthusiasm for our organisational goals, as well as his significant expertise put him in an excellent position to lead and develop our performance solutions team.

"I am delighted to have such high quality personnel in Matt, Scott and Chelsea supporting me in leading the Performance team at this crucial period on the road to 2012.”

Favier, an experienced manager, administrator and coach, joins the organisation from UK Athletics, where he is currently director of their High Performance Centre (HIPAC) in Loughborough, where he coached sprinter Harry Aikines Aryeetey to the world youth and junior 100 metres titles.

Favier joined UK Athletics in 2003, establishing the West London HIPAC at Brunel before moving to Loughborough in 2008. Favier joins UK Sport with 15 years experience of working in high performance sporting bodies both in Australia, including Athletics Australia, the Queensland Academy of Sport and the Australian Paralympic Committee, and in the UK.

Favier has an Undergraduate Degree in Physical Education from Canberra University and an MBA from the Sydney University of Technology.

He said: “I am delighted to be joining UK Sport at such an important and challenging time for British sport.

"I look forward to leading the performance solutions team, and working with my colleagues across UK Sport to support and drive the mission for world class success in 2012 and beyond, across all of the sports in the Olympic and Paralympic family.”