WTF President Chungwon Choue appointed Mr. Phillip Walter Coles, president of the Oceania Taekwondo Union and Australian member of the International Olympic Committee, as a vice president of the WTF on Feb. 4, 2008.

Under the WTF Rules and Regulations, the WTF has six vice presidents. Of the six, three are elected at the General Assembly and another three are appointed by the WTF president.

Since March 14, 2007, a vice-president position has been vacant, following the death of Dr. Cha Sok Park, who was a vice president of the WTF and president of the Pan American Taekwondo Union. Mr. Coles, is serving the remainder of the late Dr. Park’s four-year term until the WTF’s next General Assembly in 2009.

As the fifth continental union of the WTF, the Oceania Taekwondo Union was established on July 16, 2005 in Sydney, Australia, with the initial 10 member nations. Mr. Coles has since served as the first president of the Oceania Taekwondo Union. The Oceania Taekwondo Union now has 13 member nations.

As recently as Jan. 10, 2008, Mr. Coles visited the headquarters of the WTF to attend the Joint Meeting of Continental Unions.