Steve Dainton and Raul Calin appointed to senior ITTF positions
August 31, 2017
The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has announced two senior staff appointments. Steve Dainton, who has been the Acting CEO for the past two months, has now been appointed as the permanent CEO.
Raul Calin, who has been serving as the ITTF Director of Operations will assist Mr Dainton as the ITTF Secretary General.
On the appointments, ITTF President Thomas Weikert stated: “Both Steve and Raul have both been extremely loyal to the ITTF over their many years of service, and have been instrumental to the growth of the ITTF over recent years.
“The ITTF Executive Committee and I have complete trust in both of them to excel in their new positions and guide the ITTF to a new fruitful era.”
On his promotion to the ITTF CEO position, Dainton stated: “It’s an exciting new era for the ITTF and table tennis. It’s the right time for the ITTF to realize its true commercial potential and modernize itself to ensure that table tennis cements itself as one of the leading sports globally at all levels.
“I am looking forward to helping to ensure this and to especially assist in growing the table tennis industry to new levels, meaning not only more people playing table tennis, but also more people actively engaged. If we get it right this will ensure the true stars, the athletes ,will be better recognized and rewarded.”
Dainton will be assisted by Raul Calin, who has been appointed in a newly created Secretary General position and will continue to be based in Lausanne to focus on ensuring ITTF’s positive Olympic relations.
Calin said: “I am looking to help build ITTF into a modern organisation, with transparency in all levels of management, with ambition and clear goals. ITTF should look for excellence in all areas.
“An institution in which national associations interact actively with the ITTF management for the benefit of our athletes and fans. Let’s work towards excellence in our sport events, let’s have ambition, let’s make an ITTF everyone is proud of.”
More changes to the ITTF professional structure will be announced in the coming months.
