Ruth Mackenzie, currently cultural policy adviser at DCMS, is to be the £130,000-a-year director of the Cultural Olympiad.

Reporting to the chair of the Cultural Olympiad committee, Tony Hall, she becomes the “ringmaster” for the cultural Olympics called for a year ago by outgoing ACE chair Sir Christopher Frayling.

Four artistic advisers have also been appointed: Sir Brian McMaster, former director of the Einburgh Festival and author of the DCMS report on excellence in the arts of 2008; Alex Poots, director of the Manchester International Festival (of which Mackenzie was general director); Martin Duncan, with whom she was co-director of the Chichester Festival Theatre; and Craig Hassall, managing director of English National Ballet who was responsible for branding for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

” Our first task will be to do an audit of the existing plans and make recommendations to the board on the vision and timetable for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad” she said. “We aim to announce our initial plans in a few months’ time”. In fact, the first announcements are expected as soon as March.

The delay in the appointment is thought to have been due to a combination of disagreement about the salary – Tony Hall told AI last month that the originally proposed pay was too low – and some opposition on the main London Olympic Committee for the Olympic Games.