UK Athletics: Joanna Adams, former England Netball chief, appointed new CEO

Joanna Adams first joined England Netball as commercial director

UK Athletics has made further changes to its leadership by recruiting ex-netball chief Joanna Adams as CEO while Chris Clark will step down as chair.

Nic Coward, who was the interim CEO, will be chair on a temporary basis.

It comes two days after UK Sport commissioned an independent review into the governing body because of issues that have raised "major concern".

The latest changes come after performance director Neil Black left his position in October.

In a turbulent year, UKA also saw Richard Bowker leave his role as chair, while Zara Hyde-Peters opted not to take up the role of chief executive following allegations about her husband.

Adams, the current chief commercial officer at the London Legacy Development Corporation, was the CEO of England Netball from 2015 to 2019.

Clark, who will now become an advisor to the UKA board, said: "With Joanna's appointment and her track record of success in not only sports governance but also commercial, marketing and competition structures, it means we have excellent leadership to take the sport on in a positive future direction."

UK Athletics (UKA) has faced criticism over the handling of its relationship with banned coach Alberto Salazar and the disbanded Nike Oregon Project (NOP).

It has already launched its own review into the issues regarding NOP, prior to UK Sport's announcement this week that it would also hold an independent investigation and "support the recruitment" of a new CEO.