A new generation takes on the IOF leadership

Henrik Eliasson has been hired as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Sondre Sande Gullord has been hired as the new Secretary General of the International Orienteering Federation (IOF).

After 7 years in the role of Secretary General & CEO of the IOF, Tom Hollowell will be retiring from the role. Over the period the IOF has grown with increased visibility, increased external income and professional staff and has enhanced its governance with increasing stakeholder involvement. With this increase in ambitions comes an increase in workload for the management and staff. The IOF Council therefore decided to recruit for the CEO position and Secretary General position separately. This resulted in a successful recruiting process with several highly qualified candidates.  The Council has now determined who should be tasked with the professional leadership of the organisation.

Henrik Eliasson (38) will take up the position of IOF CEO starting January 10, 2022. Henrik comes to the IOF from the Gothenburg Athletic Association, where he has been a Director responsible for strengthening the commercial strategy and organisation for Athletics events in the region, among them the world’s largest half-marathon Göteborgsvarvet. Despite his work in athletics, Henrik is an orienteer at heart. He has been an elite runner, coach and club leader at well-known IFK Göteborg, and was the professional business manager of the Orienteering Association of Gothenburg prior to moving to athletics. His strong commercial and events background will bring value to the continued development of the IOFs professional organisation.

Sondre Sande Gullord (32) will start on February 1, 2022 as the new IOF Secretary General, working 80%. As with Henrik, Sondre has a strong background in orienteering both at the local club level as a competitor and leader, running recreational orienteering projects within the Norwegian Orienteering Federation (NOF) and as a past Board Member of NOF. He currently works in the Strategy and Development department of consulting firm BDO, working on development within sports organisations. He is also a Vice President in the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports, the governing body for all sports in Norway. Sondre brings with him to the IOF a good understanding and experience of governance processes which be very valuable as the IOF continues to develop in these areas.

The division of work between the CEO and Secretary general has been agreed on a general level and will become more detailed and communicated to all IOF stakeholders as Henrik and Sondre begin their work.

– Both Henrik and Sondre represent a younger generation but have a strong background in sports management at different levels, including work with volunteers and voluntary organisations, says IOF President Leho Haldna. – I hope that they will complement each other and take us one step further together and in good cooperation with IOF stakeholders. I would like to wish both of them success in their new roles.