WVSports – West Virginia looking for the right fit for complex MAC job

West Virginia is making progress on the search to find a new executive director for the Mountaineer Athletic Club according to Wren Baker, director of athletics.

The position has been open since Patrick Gray stepped down at the end of May to work on special projects with the university. Gray was hired in July 2021 and was responsible for a wide-range of activities such as fundraising and development.

Gray previously served as the senior director at Michigan and was responsible for a wide-array of fundraising as well as other responsibilities.

But now the university is tasked with finding a replacement to fill that vacancy and the focus can shift back there after tabbing Josh Eilert in the interim role to replace former head coach Bob Huggins this past week.

“We’ve had some productive conversations. Generally, I’m not somebody that says we have to have one of us and have been here. But I do think somebody who can be a quick study of WVU and West Virginia culture is important,” Baker said.

That is especially important due to the turnover in the MAC and there is the concern of the loss of relationship equity and someone needing to learn on the fly.

“We would like to get it done sooner rather than later,” Baker said.

That role in itself is complex in the sense that it takes great relationship building with the donor base to invest and reinvest in the university, managing a team of people and then there is the major gift and annual fund part of the job.

That last aspect is more of a database management position.

“All of those things go into it. It’s a very complex job and much more complex than it probably was a few years ago and it requires a certain experience and skill set to be effective doing it,” Baker said.