Dear Cal Family,

We are excited to officially begin our 12-month appointment as Co-Athletic Directors! With a combined 25 years of experience working for Cal Athletics and over 40 years in college athletics, we are honored to serve in this capacity at a university that means so much to us. 

Chancellor Lyons approached us with his vision for this innovative leadership structure in the midst of what is proving to be a period of dramatic change in college athletics. He drew on his experience with leadership development and how organizations can benefit from a paired leadership approach. As long-time students of organizational excellence, we were intrigued and excited to maximize this opportunity to lead together.

In addition to our Co-AD paired leadership model, we are looking forward to partnering with Ron Rivera, the general manager of our football program. In this new model, Ron will directly oversee the football program, including personnel and the operating budget, while we will be responsible for the supervision of the other 29 sports and the department support units. We look forward to working collaboratively with Ron to continue to elevate the program.   

Another priority will be to successfully implement the House Settlement, which has ushered in a new era of revenue sharing with student-athletes. During the year to come, it will be our responsibility, working in concert with the campus, Cal Athletics leadership and our community of supporters, to build a sustainable financial model – including philanthropy, campus funding, and the creation of new revenue generation streams. 

As we embark on a new academic year, we are grateful and excited to build upon the great momentum produced by the successes of the 2024-2025 year, including finishing 24th in the Learfield Directors' Cup, winning the Axe for the fourth year in a row, hosting ESPN College GameDay, sweeping Stanford in women's basketball, winning a national championship in rugby, tying our record by winning 23 medals at the Paris Olympics, achieving a record 93% graduation success rate, endowing five sports programs and seeing the record-breaking generosity of the Cal family.

We know there are tremendous opportunities and complicated challenges ahead. Now, more than ever, it will take the entire community working together to achieve our collective goals. We are fortunate to have an amazing team around us in the department, on campus and throughout the Cal family. We look forward to putting our department and campus in a position of great strength as we navigate this evolving landscape. 

Go Bears!
Jay and Jenny