Norwegian Gerhard Heiberg has been appointed as the new chief of the International Olympic Committee's Marketing Division, replacing disgruntled Canadian IOC vice president Dick Pound.
Mr. Heiberg, the chairman of the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, will take up his new job beginning with next year's Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. He sits on the board for several banks and oil companies.
Mr. Pound, a lawyer and president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), resigned as marketing chief after finishing third in this year's presidential election behind Jacques Rogge of Belgium.
The Canadian was responsible for negotiating several lucrative television and sponsorship deals that poured billions of dollars into the Olympic movement. He will remain the WADA president and said he hopes to bring the same energy and focus to that organization that he did to the IOC.
There were indications of a public rift between Mr. Rogge and Mr. Pound after the Canadian wrote to sponsors suggesting the new president was not committed to reforms instituted after the Salt Lake City bribery and influence scandal rocked the IOC two years ago.
The IOC president then revealed a $3 million-dollar contract Mr. Pound arranged with former president Juan Antonio Samaranch for the Canadian's law firm. The contract was legal, but Mr. Rogge ordered the payments stopped.