Mark Anscombe will take over as Ulster head coach from the beginning of next season, the Irish Province have confirmed.
Anscombe succeeds Brian McLaughlin, who will take up a role within their academy. The New Zealander joins on a two-year contract after a three years as head coach of the Auckland NPC side - a role he combined with coaching the New Zealand under-20 side.
"It has been a long and detailed process, but we're now delighted to confirm that Mark [Anscombe] will be joining us next season," commented Ulster's director of rugby David Humphreys.
"We all believe that he has the experience, ability and knowledge to build on the success of the last two years. We were all very impressed with Mark during the interview process, he know what it takes to get the best out of players and has an in-depth understanding of the game.
"He has strong leadership qualities and will challenge both the players and staff in ways some of them haven't been challenged before.
"As well as an experienced head coach, he is a high quality technical forwards coach with a proven track record of delivering competitive, physical forward packs. He will be instrumental in developing some of the young forwards already in our system to ensure they become key players for both Ulster and Ireland."
Anscombe said: "I've been keeping an eye on Ulster for a while now and I'm very impressed with the plans and what's happening at Ulster and I've very excited about the prospect at being involved in that.
"It goes without saying that the job will present me with an exciting challenge.
"Ulster have been developing over the past few years, they've had some new players come in to strengthen the squad so the foundations are there but there's a lot of work to be done in terms of moving on to the next stage and that will be a challenge for me and for all of us."