Joost van der Putten will take over the reins from Al Doherty as president of the Yukon Quest International Association (Canada).

Van der Putten has been on the Yukon board of directors for the past year and has

volunteered as the start/finish line manager in Whitehorse two years.

"So getting elected to this position is quite exciting,” van der Putten said.

"I'm honoured to be selected as the new president. I'm looking forward to hopefully putting my experiences to work and see that it all comes together.”

Those experiences also include being the owner and general manager of Nature Tours of Yukon, a company which offers dog mushing trips.

"I really love doing that,” he said, noting that he runs the company, not the tours.

"I'm really interested in dogs. I've never been a dog musher myself, but have always been around dogs.”

Where does that passion come from?

"If you work with dogs, whether you go walking, hiking, backpacking or dog mushing, it's a huge reward,” he said.

Originally from Holland, van der Putten first visited the Yukon in 1989, fell in love with the place and returned each year until moving here permanently in the winter of 2008.

"The moment I stepped out of the plane I fell in love with the country, the nature, landscape, people, culture, you name it. That made us come back every year. The bonding was so strong that eventually we eventually ended up in Whitehorse.”

He's hoping to bring his experience with the Yukon Quest to the next level.

"I think it's a great event. … People who are really dedicated on either mushing itself, working with dogs, volunteers who are dedicated to support that – things like that (make it great),” he said.

He added that he enjoys a good working relationship with Doherty.

Much advice from the past president?

"Actually quite a lot,” van der Putten said. "We had a good working relationship on the board last year of course during board meetings but as well outside of board meetings. He will keep supporting that, that's for sure.”

Four board members made the move to executive roles following the annual general meeting last month.

Newly elected board member Pamela Brown, who works for Yukon Parks, was named vice-president. Clarke Laprairie, who was re-elected to the board last month, holds the position of treasurer and new member Tamra Reynolds will tackle the duties of secretary.

The first order of business for van der Putten will be hiring a new executive director after Georgina Leslie resigned from the position last month.

"That's one of the first things that we have to see taken care, because some people think the next race is far way, but it's actually approaching already,” van der Putten said.

The 29th running of the Yukon Quest will start in Fairbanks on Feb. 4.