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Collingwood Football Club has announced that Swimming Australia's Mark Anderson has been appointed its new Chief Executive.

He will take over the role vacated by the Magpie's long-serving Chief Executive, Gary Pert, who announced his resignation in July.

Pert resigned when the club was in the middle of a review looking into the club's underwhelming on-field performance.

Announcing the appointment, Collingwood President Eddie McGuire said Anderson had shown an ability to lead, commenting "Mark understands the unforgiving realities of elite sport, having led organisations competing on world stages, and has proven his strong commercial sense in securing landmark sponsorship and broadcast deals across the AFL, swimming and hockey.

"The ‘Collingwood Forever Blueprint’ clearly outlines the direction this club needs to take and we are certain Mark has the skillset and character to lead a 21st-century sports organisation that houses elite male and female teams and is home to an unparalleled supporter base."

Having previously worked at Hockey Australia and Essendon Football Club, Anderson will leave Swimming Australia after four and a half years as its Chief Executive.

Having joined Swimming Australia at a critical point in time, Anderson enjoyed considerable success with the sport since 2013, making some significant changes at both a commercial, a high-performance and governance level of the sport.

On departing Swimming Australia, Anderson said the organisation was going through a time of change and "the job is not done", stating “although I was not planning to leave at this time, I am confident that we have highly talented staff, coaches and systems in place to deliver future success.”

Swimming Australia President John Bertrand echoed Anderson’s sentiments and offered his congratulations on this exciting new opportunity.

Bertrand concluded “my congratulations to Mark on his new appointment at the Collingwood Football Club. This is great accolade for Mark, recognising what he has achieved as CEO of Swimming Australia over the last four and a half years.

“Although Mark, in moving onto Collingwood is a loss to Swimming Australia, he leaves our organisation in a very strong position.

“We have made so much progress under his leadership and we are well placed to continue to attract the highest calibre people.

“In my role as Swimming Australia Chairman, it has been a pleasure to have worked closely with Mark to secure new partnerships including Hancock Prospecting and Optus who help to guarantee our financial stability into the future.”

With Swimming Australia, Anderson has been an integral member of the Elite Sport Male Champions of Change program, also supported by Collingwood, his appointment comes after a thorough recruitment process which was conducted with the assistance of executive search firm InterSearch.

Anderson will continue in his role at Swimming Australia until the end of the Commonwealth Games selection trials in February next year and will start his new role in early March.

After a fourth successive season without making the finals, Collingwood has revealed a loss of $2.73 million for the year.

Following a deficit of $2.6 million in 2016, the Club claimed a profit of $1.65 million before the depreciation of the value of the Glasshouse and redevelopments of the Holden Centre.

Image of Mark Anderson courtesy of Swimming Australia.

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