John Steele will leave his role as CEO of Youth Sport Trust (YST) to become executive director of sport at Loughborough University at the end of the year.

Speaking of his appointment, Steele – who has been at YST since February 2012 – said: “It’s a great privilege to take on the role at Loughborough, at a time when the university has some unprecedented ambition around student and high performance sport.

“It’s been an absolute honour to have led YST and to have been part of an organisation that is positively impacting on the lives of millions of young people.”

Baroness Sue Campbell, chair of YST, added: “This is a tremendous opportunity for John and will place him at the heart of new and exciting developments in student and high performance sport at the university.

"This is also good news for the YST which is currently developing a long term partnership with Loughborough University.”

The move comes a year after Steele took over from Steve Cram as chair of the English Institute of Sport (in October 2013).

During his career, Steele has held the roles of CEO of Rugby Football Union (RFU) and CEO of UK Sport (2005 to 2010).