Greek official Yerolimpos had held the "ad interim" role title after Kovács left as part of an IBA restructure in July, and was appointed to the secretary general role on 87 per cent of the vote by the governing body's Board of Directors.

Yerolimpos was one of 50 candidates who applied for the role, with this whittled down to a shortlist of four.

Two candidates were chosen by the IBA Selection Committee to be put before a vote from the Board of Directors, who appointed Yerolimpos instead of Ukrainian Volodymyr Kupchak.

Yerolimpos vowed to help drive changes at IBA in key areas including integrity and transparency.

"I would like to thank you for your trust," he said.

"It is an honour for me to be appointed as secretary general for the International Boxing Association.

"I will dedicate all my time to the rebranding of IBA at all levels, especially in integrity and transparency.

"IBA is my new home."

The newly appointed official has previously served as general secretary of the World and European Karate Federation for 16 years.

He was a director on the Athens 2004 Olympics and Paralympics Organising Committee, and remained a Hellenic Olympic Committee member until last year.

The qualified economist is also a former executive director of SportAccord.

Atlanta 1996 Olympic gold medallist Kovács of Hungary left his role as secretary general with immediate effect in July.

His departure was rebuked by the International Olympic Committee, who had insisted that IBA should "avoid a strong Presidential office outside the administrative office in Lausanne", according to its sports director Kit McConnell.

In his role as secretary general, Yerolimpos is set to work with IBA President Umar Kremlev of Russia, who is chairing the Strategy Committee, on the organisation's four-year strategic plan.

South African Rasha Al-Khamis, Kupchak, Switzerland's Patrick Bosshard, American Barry Siff, Cameroon's Carole Ompong and Ana Stražar of Slovenia were all appointed as members of the Strategy Committee by the Board.

Further candidates from Oceania are set to be voted on later once the vetting process has been completed.

The Board provided unanimous approval to the Rules of the Boxing Independent Integrity Unit (BIIU), and added a tribunal for ethics and disciplinary cases and dispute resolution chamber to resolve matters between "boxing stakeholders" to the BIIU's Compliance Unit.

The calendar for IBA's competitions up to 2024, including World Boxing Tour hosts, was also presented to the Board.

Maribor in Slovenia has been announced as the first host of an event on the Tour with a silver belt series tournament from October 19 to 29 this year.

The Board's meeting came prior to Sunday's (September 25) Extraordinary Congress, where Kremlev could be challenged for the IBA leadership by Dutch official Boris van der Vorst if it votes to re-stage the election.

Van der Vorst successfully appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after the BIIU deemed him ineligible to stand at the Extraordinary Congress in Istanbul in May, where Kremlev was re-elected by acclamation.

IBA has been stripped of its rights to organise the boxing tournament at the Paris 2024 Olympics, and been left off the initial programme for Los Angeles 2028 amid continued governance concerns.