Austin, who has been a performance adviser for UK Sport since 2008, will take over on March 28 from British Cycling's former chief executive Peter King, who has performed an interim role following the departure of Peter Hart to London 2012.

Previously head of performance programmes at Badminton England, where he worked with the sport's Olympic and Commonwealth Games medal winners, Austin has worked with a number of successful national governing bodies during his time at UK Sport.

"We are delighted to have appointed someone with Jon's detailed knowledge of the UK sporting scene with well established relationships with our funding agencies," said Anthony Temple the chair of Pentathlon GB.

"His expertise as chief executive will be needed in the challenging period facing all sports as we continue our preparations for the Olympic Games in London in 2012."

Austin commented: "I am very pleased and privileged to have the opportunity to be the chief executive of Pentathlon GB."

Austin began his career in the RAF where he was initially a physical training instructor before leaving the Services and taking up a managerial role with David Lloyd Leisure.

His background offers him a solid base from which to guide modern pentathlon towards a home Olympic Games while leading its continuing development and strengthening its commercial activities.

The British women's squad has produced a medal at every Olympic Games since their event was included in 2000.

Steph Cook and Kate Allenby took gold and bronze in Sydney 2000.

Georgina Harland won bronze in 2004 and Heather Fell took silver in 2008.

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