Sowrey, formerly the managing director of business process outsourcing and sales for Accenture, was appointed on July 1 by the International Sailing Federation, who have since been rebranded as World Sailing.

He replaced Jerome Pels, who resigned in October 2014 following 17 years with the Southampton-based governing body, but resigned from the post on December 2.

World Sailing had initially stated following his departure that the Briton had opted to “pursue other challenges suited to his background”, but Croce outlined that the governing body’s annual conference held from November 7 to 14 in the Chinese city Sanya had been a key moment.

“There were doubts on both sides that were highlighted when we went to Sanya because the conference is always such a difficult situation with so many issues going on,” said Croce, during a conference call.

“In that moment we both got the feeling that it was very difficult for somebody who was not in this world but was more used to a corporate environment to face various issues that came on.

“We thought we might wait to see until the end of the year to see what went on but after two days Peter came to us two days later and said, ‘What should I do’ and then it was decided.”

Sowrey, who was awarded the business development leader of the year award in the United Kingdom in 2011, also previously worked for Ericsson and had given advisory support to the 5 West team and Alex Thomson Racing.

Following his appointment the governing body had praised his skills in “developing brands, services, sales and organisational capabilities” and Croce admitted Sowrey’s resignation had proved “painful for both sides”.

However he denied that World Sailing’s Executive Committee was reluctant to make changes stating that “the age of the executive is old but not the heads” and also expressed his hope a replacement would quickly be in place.

“We have been working with members of the Executive Committee and we will probably have someone sitting in the chief executive position in the first half of January,” Croce said.

“It is priority one for us to get someone in the office, we need someone who is there every day to give guidelines and we have such a big year in front with the Olympic Games and other issues.

“We have seen quite a number of candidates and have a shortlist of three, but there is one who particularly for me is the right person and we will come to a decision in a very short time.”

“We want him sitting down here in the first week of January.”

Related stories
December 2015: International Sailing Federation chief executive resigns after only five months in role
July 2015: International Sailing Federation appoints Briton as new chief executive
October 2014: ISAF chief executive resigns after 17 years with sailing's world governing body