Ambassadors Group Inc., the Spokane-based educational travel-program provider, announced this afternoon the resignation of top executives Jeffrey and Margaret Thomas.

Jeffrey Thomas had been the company's president and CEO and had served on its board of directors. Margaret Thomas, his wife, had been the company's executive vice president and the president and chief operating officer of its operating subsidiary Ambassador Programs Inc.

Anthony Dombrowik, the company's senior vice president and chief financial officer, has assumed the role of interim CEO. The board of directors is starting a search for a new CEO.

In a prepared statement, Ambassadors Group board chairman Jeff Kalustian thanked the Thomases for their "significant contributions" during the last 17 years.

Kalustian also said, "The board and the executive team are committed to executing our business strategy and continuing to position the company for long-term profitable growth."

The resignations come less than a year after a proxy fight during which a group of shareholders said they had lost confidence in Ambassadors's leadership and proposed their own three candidates for the company's board.

Last May, Ambassadors and those shareholders reached an accord, and the company added two of the shareholders' candidates to its board.

Late last month, Ambassadors Group reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $10 million, or 58 cents per diluted share, compared with a loss of $7.8 million, or 45 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. For all of 2012, Ambassadors posted net income of $1.7 million, or 10 cents per share, compared with $3 million, or 17 cents a share, in 2011.