Mizzou Athletics makes hires, gives promotions ahead of fall season

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

With the start of the upcoming 2024-25 sports season approaching, Mizzou Athletics Director Laird Veatch added a few familiar faces to his staff and announced some promotions within his department on Friday.

Four of Veatch's five hires worked under his leadership at the University of Memphis. New Executive Athletics Director-Chief Financial Officer Andrew Roberts was Veatch's Senior Associate Athletics Director-Chief Financial Officer from 2020-24 at Memphis, but most recently, he served as the University of Tennessee Health Science Center's Executive Director for Financial Planning and Budget. Roberts will be in charge of Mizzou's business office and analytics, equipment and information technology.

New Senior Associate Athletics Director-Chief of Public Relations Michael Schroeder worked with Veatch for more than three years at Memphis as the school's Associate Athletics Director-Integrated Communications and Marketing. Schroeder will oversee Mizzou's marketing, ticket sales and operations, broadcast, sports tech and creative services.

Josh Moore, who is taking over as Mizzou's Assistant Athletics Director-Marketing, and Emily Hagans, who was hired as the Assistant Athletics Director-People and Culture at MU, also spent time with Veatch at Memphis as the school's Assistant Athletics Director-Marketing and Game Presentation and Director of Athletic Stewardship and Engagement respectively.

Mizzou Athletics' only hire from Friday that is not reuniting with Veatch from his time in Memphis is Joe Swingle, who became the department's newest Executive Athletics Director-Chief Infrastructure Officer. However, he did work with the new MU Athletics Director during Veatch's first stint in Columbia. Swingle was an assistant director of game operations at Mizzou from 2000-02. Since then, Swingle has served as the Senior Associate Athletics Director-Facilities and Capital Projects for the last 12 years at Ole Miss. When he rejoins the Mizzou community, Swingle will oversee the school's facilities and turf management.

“I’m truly excited about the team of professionals we’re bringing into Mizzou Athletics to complement and build on the excellent core we have in place,” Veatch said in Friday's press release. “Our leadership reorganization will promote alignment, efficiency and coordination across related department units and further empower the members of our Senior Leadership Team to guide their staffs and streamline our communication and decision-making.”

Mizzou Athletics also announced the following five internal promotions:

• Marcy Girton:
  • Deputy Athletics Director-Chief Operating Officer-Senior Woman Administrator
• Will Kava:
  • Executive Athletics Director-Chief of Student Athlete Services
• Blair DeBord:
  • Executive Athletics Director-Chief Resources Officer
• Nick Grunenwald:
  • Senior Associate Athletics Director-Chief of Staff 
• Dave Matter:
  • Associate Athletics Director-Strategic Communications

All five new hires are scheduled to join Mizzou Athletics over the next few weeks. During that time, the department will also begin seeking to fill two more Senior Leadership positions: the Deputy Athletics Director-Chief of External Relations and the Senior Associate Athletics Director-Development.