Marketing director Chris Green has resigned and will be leaving the Rugby Football League (RFL) at the end of February 2004 while Gary Hetherington has been appointed as president of the RFL.
Green joined the organisation in January 2003 having previously been a director with Camelot Group plc, the National Lottery operator.
Stated Green: "There have been some satisfying achievements in my year with the RFL - not least the sell out crowds at the Grand Final and the Test matches and I am very pleased to have worked with new sponsors of the game of the calibre of Powergen, Gillette and Cadbury.
"However, for personal reasons I have decided that for the RFL and for my own career progression it would be best if I moved on at this point to allow the RFL to take a fresh look at the structuring and resourcing of its marketing activity."
Meanwhile Hetherington, who is chief executive at Leeds, was confirmed in the role at an RFL council meeting, taking over from the retiring president Tom Fleet of Widnes.
"It is only ceremonial with no constitutional powers, so I won't be wielding a big axe," said Hetherington, whose wife Kathy held the role in 1995.
"But for someone like me who has been steeped in the game all my life it is a tremendous honour."
There is a changing of the guard at the UK's Rugby Football League with the appointment of a new president dovetailed by the resignation of the governing body's marketing director.
