Crows chairman Rob Chapman said Smart will fill a key off-field leadership position in the management team as the club builds and gathers itself for an exciting era of challenge and promise.
“Nigel Smart is highly accomplished and brings to our Club an irresistible blend of achievement as a manager, businessman and footballer,” Chapman said.
“Nigel knows business and he knows football.
"He has a record of success both inside and outside the Adelaide Football Club as a leader of people and builder of businesses.
"We chose him in an exacting national selection process from a first-class field of candidates.”
Chapman said Smart, who has been deputy chairman of the club since 2009, will immediately step down from theboard.
Smart joins the Crows from Variety The Children’s Charity, where he is its chief executive officer.
“I look forward to continuing to do all that I can to contribute to the success of our great club,” Smart said.
“The Crows and its people - players, staff and supporters - have been at the centre of my life for the greater part of it.
"I’m excited and grateful for the opportunity to return here as a leader of a terrific group of people, many of whom I have grown up with and admire tremendously.”