10 September 2011 | Tennis West

A world class coach and former top player is the new Tennis West Chief Executive Officer.

After a three month search involving more than 100 applicants, Tennis West is pleased to announce the appointment of Michael Robertson as its new CEO .

Robertson, the current Head Coach of the National and State Academies in Western Australia is also a director of a highly successful group of tennis centres on the East Coast.

The former US Open quarterfinalist who achieved a career-high ranking of 101, has coached Mary Pierce and a number of other top players in a successful international coaching career before managing Tennis Australia National High Performance Academies.

He moved to the west in 2008 to head up the National Academy in Perth, manage training and development while continuing to have a role as a National Selector.

Michael said “This is a fantastic opportunity to work with a team of talented people at Tennis West. Tennis is already very popular in WA and has great potential to develop further. I look forward to working with the staff, board and the national body to take the sport to the next level” a delighted Robertson said today.

“Having the experience at all levels of the game in numerous facets, combined with my management experience has given me some great insight into our sport and a lot of enthusiasm for its future,” he said.

Robertson is a director of a company called Creative Sports Concepts, has studied Business Administration and is completing his Masters in Business Administration.

The selection committee , comprising two Tennis West board members and a representative from Tennis Australia , a director of WA Department of Sport and Recreation and the CEO of WA Sport Federation completed an exhaustive process to select the right candidate.

Committee chair Rob Thompson said, “We had many talented applicants and in the end recommended Michael to the Board, whose decision to appoint him was unanimous. He is exceptionally well qualified to lead the team to take tennis forward in Western Australia”.

Michael will be transitioning from his current role as Head Coach of the National and State Academies in Western Australia to the new role in the coming weeks, with his official CEO start date yet to be determined.