Mark Jackson Introductory Press Conference

we are excited to have you all at well Shrine Arena today my name is sha Dennison I'm a member of the Northwestern Athletics Communications team it is my honor to be here with you all today Welcome to our guests members of the media and of course our colleagues from across campus and within the Athletics and Recreation Department we also want to extend a sincere welcome to Wildcat fans around the world watching live on Big 10 Network one quick housekeeping note if we could ask you to turn your cell phones to vibrate that would be greatly appreciated we'll Jump Right In here's the run of show for today we will begin with opening remarks from Northwestern University president Michael shill followed by the new com family vice president of Athletics and Recreation Mark Jackson after their remarks we will have a brief photo opportunity and then members of the media and attendance will have the opportunity to ask some questions it is my great honor to introduce Northwestern President Michael shill I would like to welcome all of you to an important day in the storied history of Northwestern Athletics and Northwestern University it has been quite a week I hope all of you were able to see the football game on Saturday what a venue what a game the new Northwestern Medicine field at Martin Stadium sparkled in the lakefront showcasing our beautiful campus and depending upon whether where you were sitting during the game the skyline of the most beautiful city in the world and we won what a game after that our men's soccer team had a thrilling come from behind Victory on the same field just hours after our field hockey team also won in a shut out we're truly on a roll in June when we announced that Derek grag would be taking on a new role at Northwestern and we are all grateful for everything that Derek has done during his tenure as athletic director we began a comprehensive National search for a new com family vice president and director of Athletics that process was led by trustee chip Morris and on behalf of the Northwestern community I want to express my sincere gratitude to chip for his wisdom for his enormous good heart for the care the effort and the leadership that led us to today's announcement chip thank you so [Applause] much now Chip was joined on the committee on the search committee by Professor Jerry kadava head women's lacrosse coach Kell am mon Hiller and trustees Kip kpatrick Wendy Nelson and Pat Ryan Jr I want to thank each of them for participating in an inclusive and collaborative search process I also want to thank Len Perna and his team at TurnKey zrg who were instrumental in helping us find a tremendous slate of candidates finally I want to thank Board of Trustees chair Peter Baris for his partnership and friendship in everything that I do including this decision I want to thank the entire Board of trust for their support of Northwestern Athletics and I want to thank Julie Allen right over there our board secretary and advisor for her wonderful work in bringing this search to a successful conclusion now from the moment I stepped on campus I have been Amazed by our University's Relentless pursuit of excellence in every Endeavor and that includes our Athletics program the Northwestern Athletics program is unique among D1 universities we are a top 10 academic institution playing in a division of Incredible strength and prominence we are committ committed all of us to doing Athletics the right way without compromising our academic priorities and what makes me even prouder than a win loss record of our various teams and I'm very proud of those win loss records is that our graduation rates are reliably tied for best among FBS schools and that means something the new athletic director would need to be a leader someone who would embody our values that education is even more important than winning that education includes both book learning as well as leader ship skills that ensuring student athletes are safe and that their mental and physical needs are taken care of is always priority number one ultimately we found everything that we were looking for and more in Mark jaon I won't recite Mark's illustrious resume right now but it in includes being a part of national championships in basketball at Villanova in football at USC providing educational initiatives and programming for student athletes developing new business models for College athletics and leading significant fundraising campaigns I knew from the moment that I met Mark that he shares nor Northwestern values and we believe strongly that we have unique and strong Northwestern values that he will prioritize our students welfare that he will do everything in his power to help them succeed while they're here and in life afterward he is a tireless supporter of student athletes he is a tireless supporter of his coaches and of the staff who works for the athletic department of Villanova simply put I am just delighted to have Mark join the Northwestern facult F family you can also join the faculty if you write a couple articles uh the um the now if you met Mark at the football game on Saturday you already know the energy that he is going to bring to the wild cats I want to thank the entire athletic staff for their hard work in making this transition go smoothly and in particular to Pat Goss who has done an incredible job welcoming Mark to Northwestern thank you pat pat thank you so today we begin a new chapter in Northwestern Athletics and I am proud to formally introduce the new com family vice president and director of Athletics Mark Jackson thank you thank you thank you thank you so much president shill for those kind words and thank you to everyone for coming out today I'm honored humbled excited to serve as your com family vice president for athletics in Recreation I want to thank president chill chair of the Board of Trustees Peter Baris search committee chair and proud Nu football Alum chip Morris all of the amazing members of the search committee the entire Northwestern community and even the band thank [Applause] you you have all entrusted me which what I believe is one of the best positions in all of Intercollegiate Athletics I've spent nearly 30 years in the business of professional and Collegiate Sports and I've been fortunate to be around around so many incredibly accomplished leaders and work with impactful organizations no organization has had an influence on me in my family like Villanova University I had the incredible pleasure and opportunity to work for president Father Peter dunu he is Villanova's longest tenur president and has transformed the institution with nationally recognized accomplishments on so many fronts while I'll miss our close partnership on athlet atics I'll miss his day-to-day friendship even more I also want to thank the Villanova uh Board of Trustees the donors the fans the faculty and especially the student athletes coaches and staff Through The Years who have achieved so much by working together Villanova will continue its positive momentum and our family is blessed to have been a part of that Community speaking of my family they deserve the biggest thank you 30 years in sports requires resiliency passion patience and a whole lot of love and which I've been blessed to receive from My Wife and best friend Trisha and from our four children Grace Hannah Kevin and Shawn they are my world and have taught me so much about compassion empathy competitiveness and what really matters in life and those same values will be at the foundation of our core and our leadership ship Philosophy for Northwestern Athletics the decision to come to Northwestern was very much a family decision and I'm grateful for their support they were here all weekend and quickly adapted to wearing the purple and cheering on the cats the Jackson family is all in on Northwestern I grew up in the Boston area where my parents instilled in their four children the importance of education and the importance of the Four Walls of our home that surrounded us and the values inside those walls being the most important things we should concern ourselves with as a child I found Sports to be an outlet for passion for energy for enthusiasm for teamwork and once again competitiveness I was fortunate that what little skill I did possess allowed me to attend Colby College in Maine and play varsity football for four years it was shortly after that that I came to the realization the most important influences on my life outside of my parents and my siblings were the teachers and coaches who helped shape me it was for that reason that I began my professional journey in sports as you well know this is a historic time for Intercollegiate Athletics as seismic changes take hold including including student athletes benefiting from their name image and likeness the Advent of the transfer portal unlimited transfer opportunities for student athletes mounting Anti-Trust litigation propos Congressional legislation and the house settlement currently under review by the federal courts that would allow for schools to share significant amounts of Revenue with its student athletes amongst other Provisions but while there are significant changes of foot the essence of what we do does not change we develop young men and women who contribute positively to the campus into the community and who leave our institution with a degree with wisdom and the ability to change the world from Brand recognition and donor development to bringing the community together and positively impacting the lives of our student athletes Athletics at Northwestern is important and it's meaningful and as a leader of that Enterprise I will never back away from that stance however I also recognize that we are just one small part of a much larger more Complex Community of students faculty staff researchers who are leading the way in the humanities and business and law and Health Sciences and across all of our academic disciplines our department will partner with our Campus Community students faculty and staff and we will do our part to elevate everyone's work Northwestern Athletics has a clearly defined Mission and purpose a world-class academic and student athlete experience a winning culture in many of our Sports and a commitment to winning with Integrity in class and a strong connection to Excellence in every Endeavor across campus I believe what sets us apart are not challenges but rather opportunities as a top 10 University with top 10 academic programs across the board and one of the most successful and influential alumni bases in the world why should Northwest Northwestern take any other approach with Athletics than to strive to be in the top Echelon of athletic programs across the country we will be competitive in the Big 10 conference and nationally without compromising our values and our fiscal responsibilities by recruiting Elite student athletes who excel in sports and want to be at Northwestern for the right reasons from every indication and from every student athlete I have met over the last few days we are well on our way we will utilize our best assets academics faculty staff Alumni network location coaches fac facilities and the value of a Northwestern degree to recruit and retain the next great generation of student athletes we will recruit and attract and retain worldclass coaches and staff who get more out of their players than their peers and who fully buy into to northwestern's Mission we will develop and Implement Innovative services and programming that set our experience apart whether in Performance training Medical Care technology internships foreign travel postgraduate opportunities no idea is too small we will increase revenues through current streams and develop new ones ones to support our student athletes in our programs with gratitude to the Ryan family we will have the nation's best oncampus football stadium coming online in a few years a stadium reimagined to maximize The Fan Experience it'll provide an immediate recruiting Advantage Financial stability and a showcase for the campus the Evon community in the greater area of Chicago we will enhance our philanthropic giving Outreach in meaningful ways that elevates all of our Sports programs particularly men football and men's basketball which in turn drives Revenue to allow us to fully support all of our other programs do in large part to the worldclass group of head coaches and student athletes the foundation for success is already here consider these achievements for just the 2324 Academic Year a graduation success rate of 98% as president schill alluded to which is tied for the top Mark amongst all FBS institutions and led the Big 10 for the 19th consecutive year with Wildcats earning an incredible 278 academic all big 10 honors Northwest yeah you can clap for that chip yeah Northwestern won a School record seven conference championships and seven seven Northwestern head coaches were named Coach of the Year football had the biggest year-to-year turnaround in FBS culminating in a Bowl victory men's basketball advaned to the second round of the NCAA tournament field hockey made a third consecutive appearance in the national championship our eight-time national championship winning lacrosse program was in that National Championship as well student attendance was up 19% across the board at all games matches and meets this past year northwestern's university Big 10 Champion softball program received a $5 million gift from Northwestern trustee and former student athlete Kip Kirkpatrick and his wife Sarah to support the construction of a new softball stadium our Campus Recreation facilities our inter mural programs our club sports and so much more have continued to grow and our important part of our campus and we will continue to ensure that Campus Recreation provides exceptional Service Great facilities and comprehensive programming for our students faculty staff and all members of our community these are just a handful of what Northwestern has done in the last 12 months imagine what the future brings I cannot wait to build upon these successes while many of our many in our industry are bemoaning the dark clouds and impending storms that lie ahead ahead we're going to look at all of this coming as an incredible opportunity for Northwestern to thrive we will be committed to a broad-based athletic offering of 19 Varsity Sports we will not ask more of some and less of others we must provide enough resources for success for all and not allow excuses to take hold I've been around many championship programs on the women's and the men's side and rarely is their success attributable only to resources facilities or budgets it's because of shared Vision commitment and Alignment instead of why we can't do something we will say why we can make no mistake we have work ahead of us in the days weeks months ahead I have a lot of listening to do a lot of learning a lot of watching a lot of engagements with you our staff our students our coaches our donors our alumni our community members our board members to fully immerse myself into Northwestern and to learn where we Excel and what we can do better while that feedback will inform My overall vision for the athletic department I can tell you now that our athletics department will strive to equal the Excellence on campus we will do things the right way we will have student athletes who will make you proud we will do our part to uplift the entire University we will be great financial stewards and we will win championships when we wear that Northwestern on our chest we will all understand the awesome responsibility that it carries I hope you will allow me to be a great partner one with an open door and I hope to see many of you at our events this year I'm so thankful that me and my family get to be a part of this incredible worldclass Community thank you very much [Applause] thank you Mark we will have a brief photo opportunity with the two of you right now couple short guys hey than you you want to flip it over thinking that okay we will now take some questions from the members of media and attendance I'd ask that you state your name and Outlet we have wireless microphones in both aisles we will deliver them right to you so that everyone can hear your question we will start with the voice of the wild cats someone who just enjoyed his 35th football opener Dave ennet thank you Sean thank you Mark congratulations you clearly had a great job at Villanova and a lot of success there what appealed to you about this and and secondly do you see parallels between the two situations that you can apply during this transition thanks yeah Dave first thank you for your commitment 35 home openers that that's something else so um obviously a lot of thought went into this this decision um a major decision for for me and my family um I felt we felt so much aligned with my background um there are some parallels and similarities with Villanova when you think about an elite academic profile I think a mission that has balance um this isn't a place where winning at all cost works I like the idea of developing comprehensive student athletes with a comprehensive Collegiate Experience where they touch every corner of campus and when they graduate they they want to feel connected to a place for the rest of their lives you know and then the obvious ones when you think about a top 10 institution world-class facilities influential donor base um there are uh just wonderful wonderful opportunities here to uh take advantage of and um the the more that I got around it and I've been paying attention to this job for a long time um it's a little bit of a no-brainer in our industry this place because of all the all the attributes that it has go to Matt Fortuna next hi Mark Matt Fortuna the inside Zone uh you've been around great coaches at every step of your career Jay Wright P Carol Bill b what lessons have you taken from those over the years and how do you apply them to Northwestern yeah I appreciate the question um we just got done meeting with our entire athletic department and um and I sort of learned this the hard way I I I think the um one commonality amongst great coaches is a defined leadership philosophy they know who they are and they know what they're about you have many of them right here and the reason why they all have success is because they know who they are and I think that was the best lesson learned from them like I had to develop my own leadership philosophy that works that was authentic to me and the work that I get to do um and you know there are certain commonalities amongst all the great coaches I've been around when it comes to competitiveness and energy um and enthusiasm but it's Unique to who those people are as individuals and and I I figured that out through them um particularly Pete Carol who was on me all the time to figure myself out as I was jumping around in my career and I I owe him a tremendous sense of gratitude for the influence he's he's had on my life both professionally and personally go to David next president chill David gold inside andu I was wondering if you could talk about why you decided to move Derek to this new strategy athletic strategy role and why you thought that role could not be accomplished inside the athletic department I missed the last part of your question but the uh the first part is this is a moment in Intercollegiate Athletics when the world is changing very rapidly Mark uh alluded to that our job is not to sort of shake our heads and be nostalgic about the past but to put ourselves in a position where we can think strategically about the future and given uh Dr grg's history his knowledge of uh Intercollegiate Athletics his time at the NCAA we both felt that we could use some extra brain power in thinking about the future strategically and so that is the reason why uh Derek and I decided that this would be a great position position for him and just to follow up on that why did you feel it was necessary to move that job outside of the athletic director's role outside the athletic department because it's actually a de um a advisor to the president position both Mark and Derek will report directly to me and you know just this is the way the way the world works is no one uh wants to take a new job and have his predecessor working right side by side so what you want to do is Mark is going to run the athletics department I've trust that Mark will run it in a fabulous way and Derek will report to me and give me the benefit of his advice and uh but the decisions about running the athletic department are mark it marks alone we'll go to Adam yeah Mark ad Adam Rittenberg with the SPN welcome you referenced some of the financial changes in college athletics whether it's nil Revenue sharing is coming how does Northwestern have to position itself to to compete in those areas under your leadership going forward yeah I think we have to think innovatively creatively as I told our department today everybody becomes a fundraiser everybody becomes a recruiter no idea is too small right now in order the ways we think about our current revenue streams and building those but also creating new ones and when you're building one of the best if not the best uh college football stadium in America that provides a wealth of opportunities to to maximize Revenue um enhance The Fan Experience and hopefully change the way we we look at College athletics it's no secret College athletics is a broken financial model you know most programs don't generate Revenue net positively right so um the way we look at the structure of our department is something we're going to spend a lot of time on I think um none of us got in this business Lisa my age to think about generating Revenue like a business 24/7 but now there's a big end of that department that needs to think that way and that's the approach we're going to take um although we don't have you know one of the biggest bases uh you know across the Big 10 in fact we have the smallest we have unbelievable resources I mean I look at a guy like chip and all that he's done with his careis isn't a really Innovative mindset around business and we know Kellogg's reputation you know our alumni's reputation there's a wealth of opportunity for us to tap into to creatively and innovatively think differently about how we create Revenue than to give back to to our programs our student athletes go to Andy next hi Mark I'm Andy sikman Associated Press I'm just wondering what concerns if any did you have about the Scandal that came up last year and along those lines how much of your job right now is kind of as a Healer to help heal the community um to to be honest uh I'm not brought up to speed I I I know uh with what happened last summer that's under litigation I'm not able to talk about any of it um but you know look throughout any college athletic department you can put you can point to struggles and sometimes um tarnishing of a brand through through a crisis and those are learning opportunities I've I've I've gone through some of those myself and as I mentioned to our staff this morning you know doing the right right thing isn't always easy but it's always right and we're going to commit to that um you know are we going to be perfect Pro probably not but we're going to proactively educate around the pitfalls around everything whether that's academic Integrity you look at gambling today um you know what consent means on a college campus that there's all kinds of pitfalls that we have to consistently talk about and educate around and and we'll do that and and sometimes my voice gets old or our head coaches voices get old and we got to find innovative programs or people to come in and uh get in front of our student athletes and our coaches to to educate us so we'll um we'll take a very proactive uh approach to to education we'll go to Louie next hi Mark Louis viair with wildcatreport.com welcome to Northwestern thanks so my question is around you know nil you mentioned as one of the seismic changes around the sport um you know what is your philosophy around the ad's role in nil and and how do you think Nu has positioned right now and what needs to be done to take it to the next level good question um so the word that I keep coming back to as it relates to all these new changes is alignment and we have to be aligned um you know from president schill to the board to the athletic department if we're going to have success in this new era and what that that approach is uh nil plays a huge role in that right right now the collective sits outside um of the athletic World we'll see when the house case settles whether or not that sits inside or outside it was one of the first phone calls I made was to the collective to you know learn more about it um I think we are behind comparatively to some of the competition uh that that we go up against but again um I think we have all the right people in place and um we'll have a vision around that to maximize revenue for our student athletes um this story is a powerful one I think when you tell it about the success that these coaches and these programs have had it's not hard to inspire people to want to give to help whether that's our coaches or or our student athletes and I'm excited to tell that story whether it's through the collective or whether it's through traditional fundraising means or um just tapping into people's networks um I'm excited to have those conversations we'll go to Jake next hey Mark Jake Epstein the daily Northwestern you've had quite the journey ranging from playing nzac football coaching at various professional and Collegiate levels to now being the ad at a power four institution uh how is your experience both as a player a student athlete and a coach influenced your perspective and philosophy as an athletic director and with it your goals for the future of the athletic department here at Northwestern thanks I think balance is what it's provided for me like I was a lousy athlete but I got to play division three football that Colby and made some great memories um you know I I wouldn't have had the opportunity to go to Colby without football um wouldn't have been able to afford Colby without football so that that a lot of life lessons in there um and I think it's always provided balance when you know you know you think about sort of uh Colby versus like USC where I was immersed in football those those are two completely different worlds but it always allowed me I think internally have a priority on academics and the comprehensive student athlete development because that's where I came from and that's what I was about um and all the all the stops in between I like I said I think whether it was Syracuse or USC or certainly Villanova that commitment to a comprehensive student athlete experience was was part of their mission as well and it's something that that I know fits here in president chill's Vision um I think that's why you know our student athletes are connected in such a strong way and that's why people want to give back and be connected to it I think we'll take a couple more Chris hi Mark up Chris with Fox 32 Chicago president shil kind of mentioned the priority number one of keeping athletes safe and follow a little bit on what Andy's question is what are some ways that you specifically can follow through with athlete safety and making sure the athletes here secur around safety for our student athletes yes yeah well like I said education is going to be something first and foremost will'll get in front of the student athletes to let them know how much um the importance of the uncompromising principle of treating each other well right that's an uncompromising philosophy of Northwestern Athletics Mo moving forward so um part of that is going to take take a look at our our organizational chart and the way we oversee each and every program um I'm just starting thanks to Pat he's uh provided an unbelievable um resource for me about the way we administer each and every program um because I think each one of these now require a you know a much deeper involvement based on all that we're facing so it's a combination of the head coach and the administrator with with my leadership to look at the nuances of each program each program faces different challenges when you're a head coach overseeing 110 football players versus you know a lacrosse team that may have um 20 Six Women you know the challenges are different that one's not bigger or more important than the other but each program I think requires nuances and um my Approach is you know with sport Administration is that we want somebody immersed in that program to work with the head coach to to whether that's fundraising whether it's the compliance whether it's safety uh the academic piece I want our administrators in the weeds and connected to um each and every program so that that's going to be our approach take two more we'll go Brendon then Josh hi Mr Jackson Brendon pryan from inside andu you've mentioned Revenue maximizing quite a bit and you also do have some experience in professional football as well as in the Collegiate ranks what sort of lessons do you think you're going to be able to take from your experience with professional football to try and bring that Revenue maximization to something that as you said hasn't really been run like a business yeah when you think about you know my experiences around the NFL with two entirely different organizations with with the Raiders and the Patriots but objective would be the same the the objective is the bottom line to generate revenue and whether that's meaning winning games correlating to generating revenue or selling tickets generating revenue or marketing generating Revenue that's the mission and objective of each and every one of those organizations like I said earlier we're not built that way you know at Villanova I use this example all the time the head of our ticket operation also had oversight of men's soccer and um you know so he was dealing with you know parents or alumni in the afternoon and trying to sell tickets in the morning um at an NFL organization doesn't work that way right th those are those are jobs that are committed full-time to generating Revenue that's why we have to look at our department differently the the structure of our department uh needs to be examined so that um we're maximizing revenue streams the way we look at this stadium and P Pat Ryan Jor and I have spent a lot of time over the last three or four days examining the plans giving me an education and understanding of the way um that that Stadium hopes to generate Revenue provide a fan experience um we're looking at it a very Innovative uh way much like an NFL organization on how we're going to structure that so um we uh we we'll we'll think outside the box um I'm not going to say there's going to be a major dramatic overhaul but I think there are changes coming to the way we operate on a day-to-day basis take one last from Josh hey Mark congratulations Josh Friedman with WGN TV um I know you're thinking big picture with the new stadium but just what was the experience like with the family this weekend at the lak shore stadium and as a guy who's you you played college football you've been around the game for a long time just how unique of an environment is that going to be in the interim for the next couple years yeah it was awesome it's been a whirlwind so I mean understand I just got this job Wednesday night and then so that was New York and then Thursday was Philly and then Friday I'm in Evanston I've never been here before I never visited campus which goes to speak to the reputation in our industry anybody that you talk to about the facilities the camp is like you don't have to see it you just don't because it's amazing and that did not disappoint um my my children are I have uh two in college and one in graduate school one in high school I tell you where they go to school but I literally I said to where my oldest went to college uh in front of the field hockey team the other morning and they booed they booed me yeah so I I won't I won't do that again and Kelly's already glaring at me like I can't mention certain schools um but uh everybody from from president shill to Julie to chip to Steve Wilson who's here to all these guys they're just an amazing welcoming warm uh amazing experience they arri I got in earlier in the morning but my wife arrived everybody was around Friday night and saw the sunset Friday night over the lake and we're in the Ryan Fieldhouse and the setting it's breathtaking and my my you'll appreciate my 17-year-old Sean he'll love the fact that I just mentioned his name on on this um you know it's a junior in high school he's adamant like you know Dad uh Dad I'm not leaving High School to come here you know that right that was kind of his stance when I got the job and then Friday night I could see his eyes lighting up as we went facility to facility and then after dinner he said you know Dad if if you get a nice house um there's a chance I might come a little earlier you know so that conversation happened so at least the seeds been planted and then you'll appreciate next day at the game of course my other son sees the boats out on the Harbor there is what you call it a harbor on the I don't know if you call it or Harbor on the lake and um we're going to get a boat right Dad we're going to get a boat I'm like no we're not getting a Bo boat you know but um so they loved it they absolutely loved it top to bottom they all just went back uh yesterday thank you everybody for coming out today really appreciate everybody coming out to Welsh Ryan arena for members of the media we'll do some additional availability up here on the stage momentarily thank you and I hope everybody has a wonderful day a great job