He will arrive in Sheffield in September just before the re-opening of the Crucible and the completion of Phase 2 of its £15.3 million refurbishment.

He said: "I am really excited and I feel incredibly honoured to take up this role and am looking forward to completing the building project and ensuring we offer Sheffield fantastic theatre in brilliant refurbished facilities and return a vibrant producing theatre in the cultural heart of the city.

"The Crucible is a name that everyone knows because of the snooker and I see mine and Daniel's job to try and make it well known for good theatre."

Bates has been chief executive at York Theatre Royal since January 2005 and steered the theatre through an exciting period which included the award-winning production of The Railway Children staged at the National Railway Museum.

"That was a logistical challenge, we had to borrow a space in the museum and borrow a train but it proved extremely popular," says Bates. "We attracted 24,000 over last summer and we are about to start a re-run on July 21."

Bates has been working at York in partnership with artistic director Damien Cruden, himself once of Sheffield. "We have worked together on putting the place on a more even keel. It's a question of getting the audience to support you so that they are with you when you take risks. The Railway Children is an example of exploring ways of working in partnership with other people."

Daniel Evans seems to be of a similar mind, though Bates had not previously met him. "I only knew of him but we have met a few times since and I am really excited to be working with him," he says. "The focus will be on getting work back into the Crucible and we seem to have hit it off as our ideas are similar on what a good well-run theatre should be."

Evans endorses this: "I feel that Dan's ideas of the kind of theatres he'd like to run closely echo my own. I feel very excited and confident that he'll lead the organisation into one of the most exciting periods of the theatres' history."

Also part of the chief executive's responsibility is the Lyceum and Bates has experience of receiving tours. "We produce a lot of work in York but we also have tours," he says. "I also think a combination of my experience in York and Leeds will stand me in good stead."

Prior to York, he was at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, which he joined as a stage manager in 1987 and gradually worked in various different departments from project manager to general manager and eventually executive director.

Originally from North East London, Bates trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama in stage management.