THE ACT Brumbies have appointed former Prime television boss Doug Edwards as the club's interim chief executive.
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Edwards will start in the role on Monday to give the Brumbies direction after spending the past two months without a leader.
News of Edwards' appointment broke as the Brumbies started their season against the Queensland Reds at Canberra Stadium.
Edwards has been on the Brumbies' board for 10 years.
Long-term chief executive Andrew Fagan quit at the end of December after more than a decade in charge of the Super Rugby grand finalists.
Edwards could be in charge for as little as one month, but Brumbies chairman Sean Hammond said the search for a permanent replacement could continue until at least May.
The proposed Australian Rugby Union restructure has delayed the Brumbies' search for a new boss.
The ARU board will meet on Monday to discuss a radical new organisational structure that aims to have all Australian Super Rugby clubs governed by the ARU.
It means the role of chief executive could change to a team general manager.
"The potential change to administration to rugby in Australia is so significant that we need to just take a bit of time to assess what that means for the Brumbies," Hammond said.
"Our philosophy is that we don't want to be part of [the new structure] … we didn't want to appoint a chief executive and then have an outside chance that the role could possibly be made redundant.
"We're just taking a breath while that happens. The Brumbies needs the leadership of a chief executive and [the board] said that if we didn't have a chief executive by the first game of the season, we'd appoint an interim boss."
Edwards left Prime two years ago and has been living in Queensland.
He will relocate to Canberra on Monday and begin working to improve the running of the Brumbies.
The Brumbies board will meet this week to further discuss the chief executive situation.
It is understood the NSW Waratahs, Queensland Reds and Melbourne Rebels have all indicated they would be keen to be part of the new ARU structure.
The Brumbies' preference is to remain independent.
"We've been in the final stages of negotiations with an individual for a few weeks, but it's an issue with the role of a chief executive that it's difficult to give clarity and surety," Hammond said.
Edwards has been on the Brumbies' board since 2004.
"There has been a void since Andrew Fagan left and the board can't continue to run the business," Edwards said.
"There are some issues going on with the ARU and there needs to be direction. Rather than racing to appoint a chief executive, it was better to go with an interim role."
