Liberal National Party (LNP) president Bruce McIver has quit after seven years at the helm and in the wake of the party’s shock electoral loss in January.

The LNP issued a statement this morning that said the resignation would take effect on September 25.

Mr McIver was president of the Queensland Nationals before becoming the inaugural head of the LNP when the Queensland Liberals and Nationals merged in 2008.

• Huge swing against LNP in by-election seat: poll
• ‘Two years of Liberal dysfunction’
• Canning Liberal candidate defends his family

He said the time was right for him to stand aside with the LNP “now in a transition phase” ahead of next year’s federal election.

“A decade in politics will always produce highs and lows, but I have been proud to be part of the emergence of genuine force that offers a real alternative for all Queenslanders,” Mr McIver said.

“The LNP holds office at local government level in Brisbane and federally under the Coalition Government.

“In Queensland, we are just a couple of seats from forming government.”

Mr McIver said he now intends to take up board positions in the corporate world.

He is the second high-profile figure to quit the LNP’s organisational wing since the party suffered one of the biggest defeats in the state’s history at the 2015 poll; campaign director Brad Henderson resigned in April.

An internal report into the LNP’s resounding electoral loss highlighted a breakdown between the executive and the parliamentary wing, bad election timing, errors in judgment both on policy and politics, and the public’s growing perception of a government that was arrogant.

Ousted premier Campbell Newman is expected to deliver his own assessment of the party’s failings in his tell-all biography, which is due to be released in a few weeks.