De Villiers accepted the position of non-executive chairman in June, but the ATP said in a statement "his active and effective role with the organisation prompted the change by the Board".
The ATP Board also named Philip “Flip” Galloway, the ATP’s chief financial officer who was serving as interim chief operating officer, to the COO position full-time.
Galloway will work with de Villiers; Richard Davies, CEO ATP Properties; and several other executives in a new head ATP office in London. The office will probably be based in Roehampton, where the International Tennis Federation (ITF) is based and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour has its European headquarters.
The Board initially planned to hire a chairman and CEO to replace outgoing CEO Mark Miles, who retired at the end of 2005. Instead, de Villiers will oversee a small office of ATP executives in London and work with regional CEOs in the three ATP offices in Monte-Carlo, Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida and Sydney.
Those three CEOs will be Brad Drewett (International), Horst Klosterkemper (Europe) and the newly appointed Mark Young (Americas), who will continue to serve as the ATP General Counsel.
Said de Villiers. “The most compelling reason for a structure with a small head office and three regional CEOs is that while the game is global, the stage of development, marketing needs, TV markets and the like are very different between regions.
"I intend to devolve considerably more authority and responsibility to the CEOs so that tournament directors, sponsors, the national governing bodies in the respective regions and TV companies will look to resolution from them rather than the head office."
The ATP’s business development function will be located in London, and the ATP will soon hire a chief marketing officer (CMO).
