Jane Nickerson has been appointed as the permanent chief executive of the Amateur swimming Association (ASA) after spending eight months as interim CEO.

Nickerson took over the role on a temporary basis last August when Adam Paker left the organisation.

She has since overseen the development of the ASA’s forthcoming four-year strategy – Towards a Nation Swimming – which will be published next week (week commencing 3 April).

Mike Farrar, ASA chair, said Nickerson brought a “deep knowledge of both the ASA and our aquatic sports” which he said would be “crucial as we look towards implementing our new strategy and reforming our governance.”

Nickerson was a former national swimming, and joined the ASA in 1997. She worked her way up to chief operating officer in 2009 before landing the interim CEO job.

“Having secured Sport England funding to deliver our new strategy we can now move ahead with implementing our programmes to encourage more people to take part in swimming, and support our talented athletes across all our aquatic sports,” she said.