Now that San Francisco has won its bid to host the America’s Cup race in 2013, event leaders are wasting no time in hiring the people who will make it happen.

The America’s Cup Event Authority Saturday announced they’ve hired John Craig, longtime race director for the St. Francis Yacht Club, as race director for the America’s Cup. Craig will be responsible for conducting all the races of the America’s Cup World Series – some of which will happen here in the San Francisco Bay, but others will be conducted in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He will also conduct the Louis Vuitton Cup and the America’s Cup Finals, anticipated for late summer 2013.

Craig wasn’t the first Bay Area resident to be granted a role in the race: earlier this week, Lieutenant Gov. Gavin Newsom was named the first-ever “ambassador at large” for the America’s Cup.