New Director General For International Testing Agency
Benjamin Cohen from Switzerland, current director of the World Anti-Doping Agency office in Europe and in charge of International Federations relations, was appointed to the position of Director General of the International Testing Agency (ITA), the new independent body that will provide doping controls and other services to International Federations and Major Event Organisations.
Cohen brings vast Olympic Movement experience to the role. He previously worked for UEFA, the International Basketball Federation and in the UN office of sport for development and peace in New York.
The ITA’s foundation board will be chaired by Valérie Fourneyron, with the IOC and NOCs represented by Uğur Erdener and the IFs by Francesco Ricci Bitti, President of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations.
The ITA is an independent not-for-profit Swiss foundation. It will provide anti-doping services to those International Federations and Major Event Organisations that wish to delegate their anti-doping programmes to a body that operates independently from sports organisations and national interests.
The IOC ratified the establishment of the International Testing Agency in March 2017.