Páraic Duffy is the GAA's new Director General. His appointment was ratified at a meeting of the association's Management Committee tonight and he succeeds Liam Mulvihill on a seven-year term.
The Scotstown, Co. Monaghan native is the GAA's current Player Welfare Manager and emerged from a rigorous selection process. He will take up his new post on February 1st.
Croke Park stadium director Peter McKenna and Pat Gilroy, managing director of Dalkia Ireland and a former Dublin footballer, were the other candidates.
A three-man interview panel of GAA president Nickey Brennan, former Tipperary county board chairman Con Hogan and Galway hurling All-Ireland winner Seán Silke, was charged with finding Mulvihill's successor.
Duffy had held a variety of high-profile positions within the organisation before joining the full-time staff at headquarters in January.
In a statement tonight, Brennan said he welcomed the appointment. He said the job of Director General was the "most pivotal role in the association at a hugely strategic and important time in the evolution of the GAA"
Duffy, according to Brennan, has "an outstanding record of effective and practical service to the GAA at club, colleges, county and national level".
He also said Duffy has the "ability, integrity and intellectual capability to address core issues" within the association.
Duffy is a former principal of St. Macartans College in Monaghan, a position he held for 10 years, and ex-chairman of the Monaghan County Board.
He was also a selector on Seán McCague's successful Monaghan team from 1983 to 1987 and was the International Rules Tour Manager in Australia in 2001.
McCague was elected GAA president in 1999 and appointed Duffy as chair of the Games Administration Committee on taking office a year later
The role of director general has evolved and changed dramatically over the years and Mulvihill, who is stepping down after 28 years, said Duffy can meet the challenge head on.
"I could not think of anybody more suitable and capable of taking on the responsibility and challenges of Director General," he said.
Duffy becomes the fourth person to hold the top GAA administrative post since 1929 and is the 18th in all.
He is the first Ulster man to be appointed to a position previously held by the likes of Michael Cusack (a GAA founder), Frank B Dineen (who purchased Croke Park for the GAA), Luke O'Toole, Sean O Síocháin and Padraig Ó Caoimh.
Duffy will be officially unveiled at a press conference at Croke Park tomorrow morning. The GAA has said he will not make any further public statements until taking office in February.