ISAF elects President and Vice-Presidents

by ISAF on 16 Nov 2008 Goran Petersson of Sweden has today been re-elected to serve a second term as President of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) at the ISAF General Assembly in Madrid, Spain. The seven Vice-Presidents for the next four years were also elected.

The election for the President and seven Vice-Presidents of ISAF occurs every four years as part of the ISAF General Assembly. All Member National Authorities (MNAs) of ISAF are entitled to send a delegate to the General Assembly to vote in the election.

Göran Petersson (SWE), ISAF President since November 2004, ran unopposed and was re-elected as ISAF President for a second term which will run up until November 2012.

Petersson said: 'I'm extremely honoured to be elected as President of the International Sailing Federation. It is a great honour and a privilege to serve in this position. I would like to congratulate the Vice-Presidents who have been elected. I am looking forward to having a very productive four years together.'

The President added, 'It is hard to believe it has been four years since you elected me in 2004. The world has changed much over those four years and so has the sport of sailing. We have achieved a lot but we still have a lot more to achieve.'

There were 12 eligible candidates for Vice-President (Ralph Nelles of Mexico withdrew from the election). The seven Vice-Presidents elected are:

Tomasz Holc (POL)
Nazli Imre (TUR)
David Irish (USA)
Teresa Lara (VEN)
Teo Ping Low (SIN)
Alberto Predieri (ITA)
Eric Tulla (PUR)

The President, the seven Vice-Presidents and the two ISAF Presidents of Honour will form the ISAF Executive Committee for the next four years.

The members of the ISAF Council for 2009-12, the final decision-making body of the International Sailing Federation, were also announced at the General Assembly. The Council is formed by the President and Vice-Presidents, not more than 30 members appointed by ISAF MNAs and one representative each of the ISAF Classes, Women's sailing and Offshore sailing.

The General Assembly of ISAF is also the occasion upon which the members of the ISAF Committees, Sub-Committees and Commissions resigned. The list of nominations for Committee members for 2009-2012 has been published. This list will be confirmed by the new ISAF Council.

The members of the new ISAF Council and the confirmed list of ISAF Committee members for 2009-2012 will be published on the ISAF website www.sailing.org.

The elections for the President and Vice-President and the appointment of the ISAF Council are governed by the rules in the ISAF Constitution and ISAF Regulations. The elections were conducted by an autonomous independent company, Brailer, and overseen by the Election Committee, chaired by His Majesty King Constantine.

More details on the ISAF President and ISAF Vice-Presidents, including details of their background in sailing and sports administration, and their goals for the next four years are available on the ISAF website at www.sailing.org/generalassembly.

The ISAF Regulations and the ISAF Constitution are available on the ISAF website at www.sailing.org/regulations and www.sailing.org/constitution.