DEPARTING Adelaide CEO Steven Trigg will continue on at West Lakes in a limited capacity for a month before filling the vacant CEO role at Carlton.

Trigg has held the top job at the Crows for more than 12 years, and despite claiming in February that he had "unfinished business" at the club, he said the timing of the opportunity to join the Blues was out of his control.

Before joining Carlton, Trigg said he would seek to close several commercial projects for the Crows but wouldn't involve himself in any meetings or decisions that could amount to a conflict of interest, such as list management.

He said he had been thinking about the end of his tenure at the club more "over the past six months in particular" and, more recently, the lure of joining the Blues had proved impossible to ignore.

"A few weeks back an opportunity arose … [it] started to resonate and resonate more and more," he said.

"The pure logic in joining a great club in the form of Carlton, I just couldn't get it out of my head and it progressed from there.

"I never, ever wanted to outstay my welcome. I've been supported incredibly well by this club for a long time and through a few little difficult spots.

"I just know that the time is right, I just know that we've signed off on so many really good things for the footy club and I know that it's in great shape."

Trigg hoped he would be remembered by Crows fans for more than his infamous handling of Kurt Tippett's contract and ensuing salary cap scandal in late 2012.

"There will be some who wish to put [the scandal] as a headline and put it in neon…the AFL have put it behind them, other clubs have, we have internally," Trigg said.

"We've learnt from it, we're better - better set up as a club governance-wise for it. I genuinely feel more knowledgeable and more empowered by it in a strange way.

"In every other way it's behind us."

The club's COO Nigel Smart will step in as acting CEO, reporting directly to the board, while Adelaide conducts a national and international search for Trigg's permanent replacement.

Crows chairman Rob Chapman denied Trigg was leaving so Smart or another club employee could step in, claiming there wasn't anyone internally who had obvious claims to the position.

Instead, Chapman promised to search both nationally and abroad for the "very best CEO available".