Debbie Yow

Longest Athletic Director in the history of University of Maryland.

Seasoned Athletics Director Debbie Yow has built a reputation not only for fostering great collegiate teams, but also for developing the large-scale strategic visions necessary to support those teams. After serving as the Director of Athletics at the University of Maryland, Yow recently accepted a similar position with North Carolina State University (N.C. State), where she immediately set to work developing strategic plans for the school's athletic program. Yow brings a proactive, goal-oriented management style to this endeavor.

Debbie Yow's stated goal for the beginning of her term at N.C. State involves bringing every fully funded sport in the school's athletics program into the top-25 category. Drawing on data published as part of the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act, Yow identified funding as one of the major setbacks to this vision and outlined a number of options for increasing the athletic program's resources. Among these, Yow suggested N.C. State enhance ticket sales, increase fees for students, charge for parking, develop contracts for multimedia rights and team-branded clothing, and increase concessions sales at games and the athletic department's percentage of these sales. Yow also recommended the additional formation of strategic alliances with corporate sponsors to increase revenue. Through these efforts, she intends to bring N.C. State's athletics funding closer to the division average, after which strong coaching and team development can help push the teams to intercollegiate success.

Prior to joining North Carolina State University, Debbie Yow spent over 15 years developing similar initiatives for the University of Maryland. During her tenure at the University of Maryland, Yow led the Terrapins to an unprecedented 18 national championships. The school's athletic department quickly rose to rank as one of the best in the nation, placing in the top seven percent of NCAA Division I programs. Yow consistently balanced the program's budget, while simultaneously growing the program to 27 sports and over 700 student athletes. She also reduced an inherited $51 million debt to less than $8 million over the course of her tenure.

Recognized by Street and Smith's SportsBusiness Journal as one of the top 20 most influential individuals in intercollegiate sports, Debbie Yow has won a number of awards and has been interviewed for numerous magazine and newspaper articles.

Debbie Yow, Deborah Yow, Deborah A. Yow, Athletics Director