Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg Names Athletic Director Search Committee

February 3, 2003

PITTSBURGH—University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg today announced the appointment of a committee to help him recruit the University's next athletic director. Chancellor Nordenberg said the search would be national in scope and conducted aggressively.

"I cannot imagine a better position in college athletics today," the chancellor said. "We have top-ranked teams, award-winning coaches, outstanding student athletes, and world-class facilities. The past few years have been exciting for everyone who cares about our program, and the best is yet to come. I know we will attract outstanding candidates. At the same time, because we have a person of Marc Boehm's abilities serving as interim athletic director, we can devote whatever time may be required to bring this effort to the best possible conclusion."

Members of the committee are: Susan Albrecht, associate dean in the School of Nursing and the University's faculty representative to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA); Brian Beinecke, a linebacker on the Panthers football team that won the 2002 Insight Bowl who is now a graduate student in Pitt's School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences; Thomas Bigley, retired managing partner of Ernst & Young and immediate past chair of the Pitt Board of Trustees' athletics committee; Kirk Bruce, Pitt's assistant athletic director for Olympic sports, former women's basketball coach, and a Pitt varsity letter winner of distinction; Jerome Cochran, Pitt's executive vice chancellor; John Conomikes, chair of the executive committee of Hearst Argyle Television Inc. and chair of the Pitt Board of Trustees' athletics committee; John Elliot, director of Pitt's Internal Audit Department and chair of the University's NCAA certification steering committee; and Donna Sanft, Pitt's associate athletic director for student life and compliance and a Pitt varsity letter winner of distinction.

Cochran will chair the committee. He was chair of the University's last search committee for an athletic director, in 1996. Albrecht, Bigley and Conomikes also served on that earlier committee. Chancellor Nordenberg said he will work closely with the committee throughout the process.

Chancellor Nordenberg named Boehm interim athletic director on Dec. 20, 2002, following the announcement that Steve Pederson, Pitt's athletic director since 1996, had accepted the athletic director position at the University of Nebraska. Boehm had been Pitt's associate athletic director since 1997.

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