6:02 am | March 3, 2019 | Go to Source | Author:
Wake Forest has hired John Currie as athletic director to replace longtime AD Ron Wellman, who is retiring, the school announced Sunday.
Wellman’s retirement is effective May 1, when Currie will take over the position.
Currie, a Wake Forest alumnus, served as athletic director at Kansas State from 2009 to 2017 and then at Tennessee until he was fired in December 2017 amid a controversial football coaching search. Tennessee was set to hire Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano as coach but reversed course following a backlash from fans. Tennessee paid Currie $2.5 million as part of a separation agreement reached in March 2018.
Wellman is the ACC’s longest-tenured athletic director, leading Wake Forest’s department since October 1992.
“Ron has led Wake Forest athletics with grace, integrity and a commitment to excellence without pretension,” university president Nathan Hatch said in a statement. “He has overseen the most successful period in our athletics history … 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.”
Currie began his administrative career as an assistant athletic director under Wellman at Wake Forest. He then spent 12 years in Tennessee’s athletic department before taking the top job at Kansas State.
“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,” Currie said in a statement.
He spent the past year as a consultant and taught in Columbia University’s sport management program. He inherits a Wake Forest program that has had recent success in football (three consecutive bowl wins) but has slipped in men’s basketball (one NCAA tournament appearance since 2010).
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