Ipswich Town have appointed Dmitri Halajko as their new academy director.

Halajko has spent the last two seasons working as Sporting Director at Colchester United, having previously been U23s lead coach at West Ham, head of player development at Leicester City and U21s coach at Norwich.

Town chairman and chief executive Mark Ashton said: “After an extensive recruitment process led by Luke Werhun (chief operating officer) and Gary Probert (director of football operations), we knew Dmitri would be a great fit for us. He demonstrated his history of producing high level players and other industry experience.

“Dmitri has held senior leadership roles within Premier League clubs and Category One academies, and will now help us to drive standards and help us achieve our goal of becoming a Category One academy.

“Dmitri will also help to build on the progress already made in our academy to keep improving our players, people and programmes.”

Ipswich's previous academy director, Dean Wright, stepped down from his job at the end of last season in order to move back to his native north.