Winston-Salem, NC – After nearly 27 years leading the Wake Forest University athletic department, Ron Wellman will retire as Athletic Director on May 1, 2019. Wake Forest President Nathan O. Hatch has selected John Currie to succeed Wellman as the University’s sixth athletic director.
Ron Wellman will retire as WFU Athletic Director on May 1, 2019
Wellman has served as Wake Forest University’s Athletic Director since 1992. In that time, Wake Forest has emerged as a national powerhouse in golf, tennis, men’s soccer and field hockey; the football team recently made history with bowl wins in three consecutive years and past members of the Wake Forest men’s basketball team populate professional leagues. Wake Forest’s accomplishments under Ron’s leadership include five team and seven individual national titles, 22 ACC championships and the renaissance of our athletics facilities. During his tenure, Wake Forest has raised over $400 million in philanthropic support for athletics.
“Ron has led Wake Forest athletics with grace, integrity and a commitment to excellence without pretension,” said Hatch. “He has overseen the most successful period in our athletics history, currently ranking first in the Directors Cup in the ACC while achieving a student-athlete graduation rate of 94 percent. It has been an honor to serve Wake Forest alongside a leader of extraordinary conscience and character like Ron.”
“It has been an absolute privilege to spend 27 years at Wake Forest University,” said Wellman. “This University has provided myself and my family an outstanding opportunity to develop relationships with so many phenomenal coaches and student-athletes as well as faculty, staff and community members. I have truly enjoyed my time here and I look forward to watching the program continue to grow in the coming years.”
John Currie will assume the role of Wake Forest Athletic Director on May 1. Currie is a 1993 Wake Forest graduate. He served his alma mater for six years in the 1990’s as assistant director of the Deacon Club, and assistant AD. Currie has nine years of service as a NCAA Division I level athletics director, at Kansas State University from 2009-17 and most recently at Tennessee.
“I am delighted to welcome John Currie and his wife, Mary Lawrence, back home to their alma mater, Wake Forest,” said Hatch. “I’ve long followed John’s career. He comes highly recommended by a long list of academic leaders, commissioners, coaches, former student-athletes and staff throughout higher education and college athletics. As a Wake Forest grad, North Carolina native and accomplished athletic director, John is the perfect fit to follow in the footsteps of his mentor, Ron Wellman.”
“Today is a very humbling day and one that my wife, Mary Lawrence, and I are grateful for the confidence that President Hatch and the Board of Trustees has shown us to make this dream come true,” said Currie. “Ron Wellman has been my long-time mentor and is responsible for everything I have in my professional life – the most important of which is the ethical foundation that has sustained me over the last 25 years.
“The many great accomplishments achieved by Wake Forest over the last 185 years has happened because of our collective spirit, energy, creativity and initiative channeled together – students, faculty, administration, alumni, parents, the Winston-Salem community and beyond. I look forward to reacquainting myself with old friends and collaborating with new ones to better understand our challenges and opportunities.”
After leaving Wake Forest, Currie served in a variety of roles at Tennessee from 2000 until 2009, rising from an assistant athletic director for development to executive associate athletic director. He was hired as the athletic director at Kansas State University in 2009 and led the Wildcats through an eight-year period of unprecedented academic, athletic and fundraising excellence. Currie inherited a K-State athletics budget facing an operational deficit and transformed the Wildcats into one of the NCAA’s most financially solvent programs.
A nationally-recognized leader in intercollegiate athletics, Currie has spent his career building a solid reputation as a fundraiser, builder of great facilities and an inclusive leader. In 2013, he earned the Under Armour Athletic Director of the Year and received the Bobby Dodd Athletic Director Award. In 2011, Currie was the named to the Sports Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 list.
Currie has proven himself to be an accomplished personnel manager with numerous successful hires at Kansas State. Among Currie’s hires were Bruce Weber, who was the Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2013 and led the Wildcats to the Big 12 championship in his first season. Now in his seventh year, Weber has become the 3rd winningest coach in K-State history, has led K-State four NCAA Tournament berths including an Elite Eight finish in 2018, all while posting a 100 percent Graduation Success Rate (GSR).
During his tenure in Manhattan, Kan., Currie initiated, designed, and completed $210 million in comprehensive facility improvements including the Vanier Family Football Complex, West Stadium Center, Ice Family Basketball Center, Intercollegiate Rowing Facility, and the Mike Goss Tennis Stadium – all funded without state tax, university tuition or fee dollars.
During Currie’s time at Tennessee as Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics in 2017, he made immediate progress in several areas, developing an outstanding and diverse senior leadership team, and opening communication with faculty senate, student government, deans and department heads, as well as state and local officials, building a highly regarded and inclusive senior leadership team and completing successful hires in men’s tennis and baseball.
“John and I have talked at length about his time as Athletic Director at Tennessee,” said Hatch. “His abilities as a leader were put to the test through what was clearly a trying period for him personally and professionally. What impressed me was John’s resilience and integrity – always putting the needs of the student-athletes first.”
Currie currently holds an adjunct position and teaches a class at Columbia University in New York, and is a consultant for the University of Texas at Austin.
Currie and his wife, Mary Lawrence, are the parents of three children: Jack, Virginia, and Mary-Dell.
History of Wake Forest Athletic Directors
Jim Weaver (Centenary ‘24) 1937-54
Pat Preston (Wake Forest ‘43) 1954-56
Bill Gibson (Wake Forest ‘19) 1956-64
Dr. Gene Hooks (Wake Forest ’50) 1964-92
Ron Wellman (Bowling Green ’70) 1992-2019
John Currie (Wake Forest ‘93) 2019-
Wellman’s History with Wake Forest
Wellman has served as Wake Forest’s athletic director since October 13, 1992. He succeeded Dr. Gene Hooks who was the athletic director for 28 years from 1964 until 1992. Wake Forest has been served by just two athletic directors over the last 55 years.
Wellman has been the dean of athletic directors in the Atlantic Coast Conference and is the nation’s longest tenured athletic director at the NCAA Division I level.
During his 27 years, Wake Forest won 22 ACC Championships and five NCAA team championships as well as seven individual national titles. The team titles came in field hockey in three consecutive seasons from 2002 through 2004, in men’s soccer in 2007 and men’s tennis in 2018.
Under Wellman’s leadership, Wake Forest produced nine national players of the year, four national freshman of the year awards, and 171 first team All-Americans. In addition, during his 27-year tenure, Wellman oversaw:
607 first team All-ACC selections
41 ACC Players of the Year and 36 ACC Coaches of the Year.
38 ACC Freshman of the Year awards
18 ACC Tournament MVPs
27 Academic All-Americans
Wellman played a significant role in shaping intercollegiate athletics on a regional and national level during his time at Wake Forest. He served as chairman of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship committee, the NCAA Division I Management Council, the NCAA Baseball Committee and the NCAA Baseball Academic Enhancement Committee. Wellman is a former president of the Division I-A Athletic Directors’ Association and also served on the NCAA Diversity Leadership Strategic Planning Committee.
Wake Forest athletics has been prominent on the national scene in recent years. The football program has made seven bowl appearances in the past 13 seasons, and is currently riding a streak of three consecutive bowl wins in the last three seasons.
The men’s soccer program has been to five of the past 13 College Cups, while field hockey has appeared in 10 Final Fours in the last 19 years. The men’s and women’s golf programs are perennial postseason contenders, with the women winning back-to-back ACC titles in 2009 and 2010.
Wellman’s efforts in leading Wake Forest’s rise to prominence did not go unnoticed. In 2007-08, he was honored by two organizations: Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal named him College Athletic Director of the Year and the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) selected Wellman as its AstroTurf AD of the Year for the Southeast Region—the second time in his career he received that honor.
Off the playing fields, Wellman helped to enhance the overall development of the student-athlete. He asked his coaches to stress academics, and he instituted programs to assist and develop student-athletes in additional ways, apart from competition. Most recently, Wake Forest athletics launched its Deacon Leader program. The program is a comprehensive leadership development system designed to identify, train and develop student-athlete leaders from their arrival on campus through their senior year and beyond graduation.
During his tenure, Wake Forest has raised over $400 million in philanthropic support for athletics.
Perhaps Wellman’s greatest achievement is the transformation of athletic facilities. Wake Forest has invested $250 million into athletics construction projects since 2008 ranging from McCreary Tower at BB&T Field, to the purchase of David F. Couch Ballpark and the LJVM Coliseum from the City of Winston-Salem.
In 2019, Wake Forest will open the 87,000 square-foot Sutton Sports Performance Center and the 24,400 square-foot Shah Basketball Complex. The Sutton Sports Performance Center will, among other things, include strength and conditioning space for student-athletes as well as a nutrition area and expanded sports medicine and training resources. The Shah Basketball Complex will include an additional regulation court and dedicated strength and conditioning space for men’s and women’s basketball. In addition to those projects, the baseball team’s consecutive trips to the NCAA Regionals coincided with the opening of its Baseball Player Development Center at David F. Couch Ballpark. “The Couch” project included construction of a new clubhouse with locker rooms, team lounge, training room, equipment room, state-of-the-art pitching lab, renovated dugout and new bullpen. The soccer practice fields also received a total makeover in 2017 and a renovated playing surface at Spry Stadium enhanced the home of Wake Forest’s nationally-ranked men’s and women’s soccer teams.
In 2016, Wake Forest opened McCreary Field House, a state-of-the-art indoor practice facility serving all Wake Forest teams with a 120-yard FieldTurf indoor practice field. New practice fields at the Doc Martin Football Practice Complex were installed prior to the start of preseason camp in 2016 and Kentner Stadium received a new Astroturf surface for field hockey and an upgrade in the running surface for the track and field teams. The Wake Forest Tennis Complex also saw enhancements with the addition of the Southern Family Seating at the Leighton Team Courts, a permanent outdoor seating complex for all six collegiate courts in 2016.
During Wellman’s tenure, BB&T Field has seen many changes including the construction of McCreary Tower, the installation of a new FieldTurf surface and the construction of a state-of-the-art video board on the south side of the stadium.
Wellman also led the efforts in the construction of a new outdoor tennis center, which serves as the home to both of the Wake Forest tennis programs as well as the ATP’s Winston-Salem Open and the 2018 NCAA Tennis Championships. The Arnold Palmer Golf Complex allows Wake Forest’s golfers to practice at the premier on-campus facility in the nation. The Haddock House, named for Hall of Fame golf coach Jesse Haddock, provides coaches offices and locker room space for Wake Forest’s men’s and women’s golf teams.
Born in Celina, Ohio, Wellman earned his undergraduate degree from Bowling Green State University, where he was a pitcher on the baseball team. After receiving a master’s from Bowling Green, he joined the faculty and coaching staff at Elmhurst (IL) College in 1971, serving as head baseball coach, assistant basketball and football coach and associate professor of health and physical education. Wellman was the director of athletics his last five years at Elmhurst.
He compiled a 210-136 record in baseball before leaving to become the head baseball coach at Northwestern University. In five seasons with the Wildcats, Wellman’s teams posted a 180-97 record and 15 players signed professional contracts. Among those moving to the Major Leagues was Joe Girardi, an Academic All-America catcher who became the manager of the New York Yankees in 2007.
Wellman and his wife Linda have three daughters — Angie, who works with the Executive Partners Mentorship Program in the WFU School of Business and is married to Tim Lynde, a Wake Forest alumnus and former basketball manager who is an associate commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference; Nicole, a pediatrician, and her husband, Kevin Rice, a Greensboro Fire Department Captain and former captain of WFU’s men’s soccer team, who live in Winston-Salem; and Melissa, founder and director of GirlCHARGE, and her husband, Ben Norman, an attorney, who live in Greensboro.
The Wellmans have 10 grandchildren including Connor, Riley and McKay (Angie and Tim); Cole, Sam, Anna Kate and Molly (Nicole and Kevin); and Miller, Emme and Hank (Melissa and Ben).
Currie’s Professional Highlights
Additional information available at http://www.johnalcurrie.com/
John Currie became Wake Forest’s sixth athletic director in school history when he was named to the position on March 3, 2019. Currie is just the third individual to have held the position since 1964 following the 28-year tenure of Dr. Gene Hooks (1964-92) and Ron Wellman (1992-2019).
Currie is a 2003 Wake Forest graduate who has served twice as an athletic director at the NCAA Division I level with leadership roles at Kansas State University from 2009-17 and at the University of Tennessee in 2017.
A nationally-recognized leader in intercollegiate athletics, Currie has spent his career building a solid reputation as a fundraiser, builder of great facilities and an inclusive leader. In 2013, he earned the Under Armour Athletic Director of the Year and received the Bobby Dodd Athletic Director Award. In 2011, Currie was the named to the Sports Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 list.
Currie’s eight years at Kansas State were highlighted by unprecedented academic, athletic, and fundraising excellence.
The Wildcats excelled on the field during Currie’s tenure. The football went to seven straight bowl games and won Big 12 championships in football (2012), men’s basketball (2013) and baseball (2013). A total of 17 teams earned NCAA Tournament berths with men’s basketball reaching the Elite Eight, volleyball getting to the Sweet 16 and the baseball team won an NCAA Regional.
During his tenure in Manhattan, Kan., Currie initiated, designed, and completed $210 million in comprehensive facility improvements including the Vanier Family Football Complex, West Stadium Center, Ice Family Basketball Center, Intercollegiate Rowing Facility, and the Mike Goss Tennis Stadium – all funded without state tax, university tuition or fee dollars. In 2016, Kansas State’s Bill Snyder Family Stadium was one of five finalists for the Sports Business Journal Facility of the Year.
As a fundraiser, Currie spearheaded the effort to secure a $60 million cash gift in 2014, the largest private gift in K-State history with $40 million allocated to academics and $20 million for athletics.
While at Kansas State, Currie proved himself to be an accomplished personnel manager with numerous successful hires. Among Currie’s hires were Bruce Weber, the Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2013 after leading the Wildcats to the Big 12 championship in his first season. In his six seasons with the Wildcats, Weber has led K-State four NCAA Tournament berths including an Elite Eight finish in 2018 while posting a 100 percent Graduation Success Rate (GSR).
Currie’s influence was felt in other areas as well. Academically, all Wildcat programs boasted multi-year APR marks of at least 944 with five teams, including football, posting the Big 12’s highest mark in 2016-17. He rebuilt Kansas State’s NCAA compliance programs and the Wildcats had zero major infractions.
Currie was named the athletic director at the University of Tennessee in 2017 and immediately bolstered UT’s commitment to Title IX and Clery Act compliance and education. He emphasized inclusiveness, quadrupling the number of female senior staff members and hiring UT’s first-ever female African-American assistant athletic director. Along with his efforts to restore the Lady Vol brand, Currie accelerated the planning process for the resumption of the first phase of the Historic Neyland Stadium Master Plan and earned unanimous board approval for an initial $180 million phase of an estimated $340 total million project.
Currie and his wife, Mary Lawrence, are the parents of three children: Jack, Virginia, and Mary-Dell.
Testimonial Quotes about Ron Wellman
“Ron has led Wake Forest athletics with grace, integrity and a commitment to excellence without pretension. He has overseen the most successful period in our athletics history, currently ranking first in the Directors Cup in the ACC while achieving a student-athlete graduation rate of 94 percent. It has been an honor to serve Wake Forest alongside a leader of extraordinary conscience and character like Ron.”
Nathan O. Hatch
President
Wake Forest University
“Ron has served Wake Forest true to the same principles by which he lives his life: faith, family, and character. Through his 27 years of outstanding service, he has exemplified what Wake Forest stands for on and off the field and has enhanced Wake Forest’s reputation nationally. Personally and on behalf of the Board of Trustees, I am grateful to Ron and am glad that Ron and Linda will always be part of the Wake Forest family.”
Gerald F. Roach
Chair of the Board of Trustees
Wake Forest University
“Ron’s leadership has been incredibly transformational for our University. His deep respect with our peer ACC institutions and throughout the NCAA gave Wake Forest an important seat at the table in the dynamic evolution of college athletics. Ron was resolute in our mission to arm our educator/coaches with the very best facilities in the country in order to help our student athletes achieve their dreams and to also prepare them to lead lives that matter. Ron’s legacy will forever remain the profound impact he has had on thousands of Wake Forest student athletes over an entire generation.”
Mit Shah
CEO
Noble Investment Group
Vice Chair, Board of Trustees
Wake Forest University
“Working for Ron Wellman the past five years has been one of the greatest privileges I have experienced in my coaching career. I will be forever grateful to Ron for giving me and our staff the opportunity to come to Wake Forest. Ron has been a great boss, mentor, and friend who’s positive impact on Wake Forest Athletics will be felt for generations to come.”
Dave Clawson
Head Football Coach
Wake Forest University
“Ron has been an enormously respected and impactful leader in college athletics for decades.
“Wake Forest, the Atlantic Coast Conference and college athletics have benefited from his value driven leadership, integrity, vision and consistency of purpose.
“He is a true professional, a great personal friend and has been one of the most trusted Athletic Directors around our ACC table.All of us at the Atlantic Coast Conference wish Ron and Linda all the best in their next chapter and we heartily welcome John Currie back to his Wake Forest roots and the to ACC.”
John Swofford
Commissioner
Atlantic Coast Conference
Testimonial Quotes about John
“I am delighted to welcome John Currie and his wife, Mary Lawrence, back home to their alma mater, Wake Forest. I’ve long followed John’s career. He comes highly recommended by a long list of academic leaders, commissioners, coaches, former student-athletes and staff throughout higher education and college athletics. As a Wake Forest grad, North Carolina native and accomplished athletic director, John is the perfect fit to follow in the footsteps of his mentor, Ron Wellman.”
Nathan O. Hatch
President
Wake Forest University
“While I was a student-athlete, John consistently made himself available to me and others and was laser focused on doing whatever he could to improve the student-athlete experience. John is a guy that gets it.”
Chris Merriewether
Guard, 2010 Kansas State Elite Eight basketball team
Wharton School of Business MBA, Class of 2018
Exeter Property Group
“John did many great things for K-State as well as me personally. He was a great leader for the university and mentor for student-athletes. Even after I graduated he has contributed to my personal growth. I will always consider John a mentor and friend.”
Rodney McGruder
Former Kansas State student-athlete
Current Miami Heat Guard
“John Currie is one of the most dynamic and talented executives in college sports. Wake Forest is very fortunate to have his leadership and skills. He will be a great asset to his alma mater.”
Tom McMillen
CEO
Lead 1 Association
“I deeply appreciate John Currie’s dedication to the enhancement of the student-athlete experience and his long-standing commitment to the advancement of women and minorities.”
Danielle M. Donehew
Executive Director
Women’s Basketball Coaches Association
“I enjoyed my time working with John. One thing I really appreciate about him is the emphasis he placed on enhancing the student-athlete experience and ensuring that our young men and women had positive, transformative experiences. He also did a great job fostering relationships across campus and making it clear that the entire campus community played a major role in the success of the athletic department. I really appreciated the way he supported our program, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to work with him and build a friendship with Mary Lawrence and him.”
Rick Barnes
Head Men’s Basketball Coach
University of Tennessee
“I am impressed by John’s proven record of building strong senior leadership teams and hiring winning coaches, while always being committed to integrity and the student-athlete experience. As a leader he is distinguished by his energy, collaborative approach and a strong set of values that have enabled him to build enduring relationships with senior university administrators, faculty, coaches, student-athletes, alumni and all the stakeholders with whom he engages.”
Gerald F. Roach
Chair, Board of Trustees
Wake Forest University
“John is a visionary leader and an even better human being. Best in class coaches want to be on his team and student-athletes excel under his mentorship. John leads through teamwork and inclusiveness in recruiting, developing and empowering those around him to achieve their greatest potential with unwavering integrity. John is an innovator and will be a trailblazer for Wake Forest Athletics as a national model for excellence as well as a steward for our Winston Salem community in advocating for our collective future. At his core, John is a true servant leader with tremendous passion, energy and a boundless ambition for the long-term success of Wake Forest University.”
Mit Shah
Noble Investment Group
Vice Chair, Board of Trustees
Wake Forest University
“I am excited about the opportunity to work with John Currie and welcome him back to Wake Forest. I have known John for over a decade and have always been impressed with his work ethic, intelligence, and dedication to his profession. He understands Wake Forest as a student and administrator. I look forward to working with John and continuing to build our football program and athletic department with him.”
Dave Clawson
Head Football Coach
Wake Forest University
Ron Wellman retiring as Wake Forest Athletic Director, John Currie named AD appeared first on Chatham Journal Newspaper.