Tennis Canada names Kelly D. Murumets president and CEO

MELBOURNE – With the departure of president and CEO Michael Downey to a big job with the British Lawn Tennis Association, Tennis Canada had to fill his shoes.

On Friday, they named Kelly D. Murumets, the president and CEO of ParticipACTION, to the job.

Murumets, who has been with ParticipACTION since 2007, starts March 1.

For whatever reason, Tennis Canada chose to hold the press conference to introduce the Murumets, who will work out of the Toronto office, in Montreal. This couldn't help but underscore the fact that she speaks no French.

Montreal is a highly supportive tennis market, and its edition of the Rogers Cup is by far the more successful of the two big tennis events Tennis Canada organizes each year.

We're told that she's enrolling in French classes.

Beyond that, word is that Murumets made a great first impression on the Montreal employees with her enthousiasm and people skills. Murumets also has some gravitas as a jock; according to Tennis Canada's bio, she scuba dives and skis, and has scaled Mount Kilimanjaro.

It goes without saying that it's terrific they named a woman to the job, especially one with such a terrific resumé. It's a pretty good gig to have right now, and apparently there were some strong candidates under consideration.

ParticACTION is a non-profit; prior to that, Murumets was in the private sector. Among others, she was president of a company called Acceris Communications, a long-distance and data services provider based in San Diego, California.

She holds a lot of diplomas: a bachelors' from Bishop's University (in Quebec), an MBA from Western and a Master's in social work from Laurier University.

Here's an interview she did when she took the ParticipACTION job. There are certainly principles there that will serve her well in her new post with Tennis Canada which, above all, has as its mandate to promote the playing of the sport in Canada.