The University of Memphis’ search for its next athletic director is officially underway, the school announced in a press release Thursday afternoon.

This comes a little more than a week after former athletic director Laird Veatch departed for Missouri on April 22 and senior deputy athletic director Jeff Crane was elevated to interim athletic director a day after.

The specific position the university will look to fill will be the same one Veatch occupied, one that fulfills both the role of the university’s senior vice president and director of intercollegiate athletics.

Memphis interim athletic director addresses stadium reno, NIL deal, interest in job

Memphis has assembled a six-person advisory committee to assist university president Bill Hardgrave in the search “and act with purposeful speed this summer,” according to the press release.

The six-person advisory committee consists of:

• Dave North, Chair of the Athletics Committee, Board of Trustees and executive chairman of Sedgwick
• Lynda Black, Faculty Athletics Representative for the UofM and professor at the UofM Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law
• Michael Cook, Chair of the UofM’s Campaign Committee and founder and chairman of SouthernSun Asset Management
• Willie Gregory, director of global community impact at Nike Inc.
• Richard Smith, president and CEO, Airline and International at FedEx
• Rick Spell, President of the Auxiliary Services Foundation and president of Spell Restaurant Group

“We are extremely excited to be in the position we find ourselves in today with Athletics,” Hardgrave said in the press release. “We want to continue this upward momentum with a forward-thinking, transformative leader with the vision to ensure we achieve our full potential as we head into a promising future for Tiger Athletics.”

The momentum Memphis generated toward the end of Veatch’s four-plus-year tenure should make the university’s athletic director position attractive to prospective candidates.

Just last month, Memphis secured a $25 million name, image and likeness (NIL) deal from FedEx. The five-year partnership will provide $5 million in NIL funds annually to the Tigers’ football program, men’s and women’s basketball programs and other women’s sports.

“Memphis Athletics has seen such momentum in the past six months alone,” North said in the press release. “We will take those positive vibes into the summer as we seek out an innovative, bold leader who will bring the program into the next era.”

A $220 million renovation of Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, where the Tigers’ football team has hosted home games since 1965, is also scheduled to begin sometime this month. Phase 1 of the three-phase project is expected to be completed before the Tigers kick off the 2024 season Aug. 31 against North Alabama.

“This is a special opportunity to help shape the future of Memphis Athletics,” Gregory said in the press release. “The new athletics director will have an impact far beyond the playing fields — they will usher in the next generation of student-athletes and prepare them for success, all while guiding the rise of our athletic programs to national prominence.”