The position has been filled. Thank you for your interest.

On Saturday, the board of directors for the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race named Sue Thomas as the race's newest executive director.

The full-time position was vacant since May, when previous executive director Georgina Leslie resigned her post after one year, citing personal reasons.

The Yukon board of directors made the announcement at opening day sign-up at the Whitehorse office, also the site of the second annual volunteer appreciation party and barbeque.

"I'm jumping right in,” said Thomas, who most recently worked as a professional photographer and writer. "My first order of business is to get to know all the people, all the committees and how all these pieces come together to make the Quest happen. I have the impression right now sometimes it's just brute force, getting things done in order to make this race go.”

The 2012 Yukon Quest is set to leave Fairbanks, Alaska, on Feb. 4, when mushers will begin their 1,600-kilometres trek to Whitehorse.

This will mark Thomas' first experience with the Quest. But she has experience in other areas.

Born in Whitehorse, she was raised in Beaver Creek before moving to British Columbia, where she picked up most of her professional experience.

Thomas has acted as chair of Rowing Canada's master athlete committee. She also worked as communications manager and senior policy analyst with the Province of British Columbia.

Not to mention her experience working with not-for-profit organizations and boards as well as fund-raising, which should come in handy.

The Yukon Quest board of directors last week announced a minimum purse of US$150,000. Both Thomas and board president Joost van der Putten agreed the board should focus on fund-raising.

"Funding is a challenge,” Thomas said. "It's a non-profit organization that runs this race, so having enough funding to put the race on as well as we'd like to do it is an issue. So I'm making my pitch now: we need funding, we need sponsors, we need people who are keen on the race to let us know that, because funding is essential to make this race happen. It relies on it.”

Van der Putten said that focus helped get Thomas the job.

"And she knows much about northern values, and that's really an asset we were looking for,” he said.

The Yukon Quest also announced the return of head veterinarian Dr. Kathleen McGill, who will return in that role for the sixth time.

Marti Steury, executive director for the Alaska board of directors, also added two new staff members: Maria "Frog” Roberts as assistant director and J.C. Fletcher as sales and event manager.

This will be both Thomas' and van der Putten's first year in the Yukon board's key roles.

"Of course it's a factor,” van der Putten said. "But we're fast learners; we understand what's needed at the moment. We have a very good working relationship. We have strong agreement on many points and many issues. We'll take it from here and we will be successful.”

Thomas was optimistic that she'll transition seamlessly into her role.

"After I met Joost, who's the new president of the board, I felt very confident that it would be a good fit for me. Joost is passionate about it. He has some really good ideas about how to move the race forward in so many aspects, there's trails, the race committee, there's the junior Quest, the 300-miler – there's so many pieces,” she said.

I'm amazed at how the volunteers make this happen, get it to happen from the fellows building the trail, putting the trail in, to the folks setting up the venues, helping the mushers, putting it all together. I think the logistics of coordinating all of that, that's going to be the steep learning curb; what has to happen when and how. What are people counting on me to do in order for them to do their job to make the race happen? I don't know that yet.”