Mr Tom Pomphrett, an experienced industrial relations negotiator, was chosen from a list of four by ASTI and the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, during their meeting on Saturday.
He has been involved in industrial relations for over 26 years. He began his career in the area as a member of the Labour Court and moved to the Labour Relations Commission in 1990, where he acts as a senior conciliator.
He has spent considerable time dealing with other apparently intractable disputes, including ones at Irish Rail, Bord Gais and An Post.
He has been chairman for the last 18 months of the Teachers' Conciliation Council, which deals with claims from the three teachers' unions.
Those who have participated in meetings of this body describe Mr Pomphrett as "fair minded" and "down to earth".
The ASTI pay claim was rejected by the council earlier this year on the basis that it was outside the terms of the national pay deal. At that time officials put a £200 million cost on it.
Mr Pomphrett knows the leading members of ASTI well and has held many long meetings with them in the Department of Education over the last 18 months in his role as chairman.
He is also familiar with the senior officials in the Department of Education, who agreed to his appointment during Saturday's meeting.
Mr Pomphrett will begin his work immediately and may meet the other teachers' unions - the Teachers Union of Ireland and the Irish National Teachers Organisation. Both of them have previously voiced ideas about a forum on teaching.
Mr Pomphrett will seek to set up an agreed negotiation process between the sides and is not expected, at least initially, to address the substantive issue of the pay claim.
Instead, he will examine how an agreed forum can be set up and how it might work. Another issue he will have to consider is whether this forum will be linked to the new benchmarking body set up under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness.