UK Sport’s director of sport Peter Keen is to stand down from his position in May.

Keen, a former junior international cyclist has been with Great Britain’s high performance sports agency for eight years since joining as a performance consultant.

Keen currently leads the work that supports the active delivery of Mission 2012 and UK Sports’s performance ambitions but will move to a part-time role as a special adviser for performance from May 1.

“UK Sport CEO (chief executive officer) Liz Nicholl announced that Keen would change his role as part of the organisation’s succession planning for the Rio 2016 Olympic cycle.

“With the work of the UK Sport director of performance complete for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Peter will move into a new role of special adviser for performance as of May 1, 2012,” a statement read.

“This new role will allow Peter to continue to focus his time and energy on activities that have performance impact, whilst also pursuing personal ambitions to mentor and coach high performers in leadership and coaching, both internal and external to sport, as well as industry.”

The process to find UK Sport’s next director of performance will start before London 2012, with the intention of having a world-class candidate in the position by early 2013.