COLUMBIA, Mo. — The University of Missouri is nearing a deal to hire Laird Veatch as its next athletics director, setting up the end to a two-month search with the return of a former administrator.
Laird Veatch could be officially introduced in Columbia as soon as Friday. His start date will be May 1, though his starting salary is unclear.
Veatch has been the athletics director at Memphis since 2019 and would join the Mizzou athletics department at a pivotal time.
Missouri’s search committee was working toward his hiring on Monday, a source told the Post-Dispatch, exactly nine weeks after now-former AD Desiree Reed-Francois left the university for the same job at Arizona. ESPN first reported that MU was closing in on Veatch.
An official announcement of Veatch’s hiring is expected Tuesday, and he could be introduced later this week.
As a veteran fundraiser who has been proactive around the name, image and likeness — or NIL — compensation space, Veatch brings several of the key traits MU leaders targeted in their search for an AD.
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Veatch would return to Columbia with some familiarity with MU from two prior stints working with the university.
After joining Missouri in 1997, he worked his way up to leading the athletics department’s fundraising arm from 2000 to 2002. He emphasized fundraising for facility and capital projects while managing the school’s Tiger Scholarship Fund and directing a nine-figure capital campaign.
Veatch returned to the Mizzou athletics sphere in 2003 to work as Mizzou Sports Properties’ general manager, coordinating external media and operations with Learfield Sports.
He continued to rise through college athletics administration at Kansas State, his alma mater, before a move to Florida. Memphis hired Veatch to be its AD in October 2019.
His initial salary there was $500,000 per year, according to .
While there, Veatch secured a partnership with the city of Memphis for a $200 million renovation to modernize the school’s football stadium. He also oversaw renovations for an indoor football facility, tennis center, weight room and nutrition center.
After a couple of years there, Veatch announced a comprehensive strategic plan for the Memphis athletics department designed to align with the academic side of the university’s goals over the course of a decade.
Just last week, he secured a $25 million NIL agreement with FedEx, a massive deal for a school of Memphis’ stature.
Veatch has a wife and four children. As a football player at K-State, he was a linebacker and team captain.
His background and specialties align with a Missouri athletics department that must finance half of announced $250 million renovations to Memorial Stadium through donations and extend NIL momentum granted by a favorable state law.
“No. 1 on the list is the ability to raise money, to get donors,†Bob Blitz, the UM System curator who has chaired MU’s search committee, said last week. “Athletics today, as you know, are more expensive than they’ve ever been — and it’s going up — so we need somebody who really knows fundraising, how to recruit people to fundraise, things like that.â€
A not-too-distant second responsibility will be supporting coach Eli Drinkwitz and the Mizzou football program, which is fresh off an 11-win season and Cotton Bowl victory.
“We want to be in the (College Football Playoff),†Blitz said. “Somebody who’s a worker, somebody who will go in and do all the things that are necessary to build a championship, to get the players, to get the coaches.â€
Veatch already has had a modest influence on the Mizzou football program. He convinced Missouri to pay Memphis $1 million last year to move the programs’ scheduled football game from Memphis to the Dome at America’s Center in ºüÀêÊÓƵ.
Key wheels already are turning for Mizzou athletics, including last week’s unveiling of renderings for the extensive addition of premium seating to Memorial Stadium’s north concourse and an NIL operation that has boosted Missouri football’s program and made the men’s basketball program competitive in the transfer portal this offseason.
Maintaining that momentum will be key for Veatch as he transitions into the big chair at a Southeastern Conference school.
Some questions stemming from the sudden departure of his predecessor, though, will linger through his arrival.
What will become of the UM System Board of Curators’ MU athletics oversight committee, which met behind closed doors Monday morning, is one. Whether Veatch looks to rework the structure or makeup of the athletics department will be another.
And for Missouri’s part, it will hope that Veatch, should he find success, sticks around longer than the university’s past three athletics directors — who left after one, five and 2½ years at the helm, respectively.
With two months gone since Reed-Francois’ exit, MU’s search for her replacement clocks in on the long end of recent power conference schools’ hiring processes.
But last week, Blitz defended the search committee’s adagio tempo as necessary for the outcome it wanted.
“It’s not a long time,†he said. “When somebody looks at something and says, ‘Why is it taking so long?’ it depends on what your perspective is on things. I look at it and what I’m trying to find out is, there are certain general characteristics that make a good athletic director, and those are very important. We all know what they are; we all have a good idea of that.
“But just as important as that, you have to get down into the specifics. What fits Missouri? Does somebody want to live in Columbia, Missouri? Do they want to make it their home here? Are they going to get along with the administration? Are they going to get along with the board? So we’re trying to do a thorough job, come up with a great list of candidates to get the best athletic director possible for this university.â€
Ben Frederickson of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
Laird Veatch could be officially introduced in Columbia as soon as Friday. His start date will be May 1, though his starting salary is unclear.