In the newly created post, Chester will oversee several important functional areas including finance, business planning, information technology and grants management.

Her appointment follows a £300,000 inquiry last year into unaudited payments of £19.6 million from Sport England into grass-roots sports and paid through a bank account called the World Class Payments Bureau (WCPB) between 1999 to 2007 that senior executives apparently had no knowledge of.

The inquiry, led by Timothy Dutton QC, found major flaws in its system but no evidence of fraud.

Chester, who will work closely with the Sport England chairman Richard Lewis and chief executive Jennie Price, will officially start on March 1.

As well as supporting the chief executive on all financial and governance matters at the Law Society, she has been responsible for developing the commercial awareness of the organisation and managing a team in finance, facilities and internal audit.

Her previous roles have included finance director at the communications industry regulator, OFCOM, and European finance director for Sotheby’s.

Price, said: "We are delighted to have appointed someone of Rona's calibre to this new and important post. It is one which sits at the heart of our organisation, and with her considerable experience in both the public and private sectors, I am confident that we will build upon the standards and momentum we have established over the past two years."

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