The Canadian Football League's Board of Governors has formed a search committee to begin the process of finding a successor to outgoing commissioner Mark Cohon.

The Committee will be led by CFL Chairman Jim Lawson, who is the chairman of the board of Woodbine Entertainment Group, Canada's largest racetrack operator. It will also include several CFL Governors while senior leadership from each CFL team will have input throughout the search process.

Spencer Stuart, one of the world's leading executive search firms, will also assist in finding the next commissioner.

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"The committee is looking forward to a process that will result in securing the best possible candidate for this prestigious position at an important time for our league," Lawson said in a statement.

Cohon announced back on August 20 that he would not seek a third term as commissioner when his contract expires next spring. Now in his eighth season as CFL commissioner, only Jake Gaudaur (1968-1984) and Sydney Halter (1958-1966) have held the position as long.

A lucrative television deal, the return of Ottawa to the CFL, labour peace until 2018, a more stringent drug-testing policy and new stadium projects in Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, Hamilton and Ottawa will be among Cohon's legacies.

"I looked at that list and said 'you know what? It's probably the right time for me,"' he said earlier this year. "I've loved this job and I love this job. But I think there is a point in anyone's career that you look at it and say 'OK, I'm 48 years old. I'm going to be 49 at the end of my term."

Files from The Canadian Press were used in this report