Greene's presence impresses search committee
AUBURN | Allen Greene made an immediate impression on Auburn’s search committee and it was good. Very good.
Greene was announced as Auburn’s 15th Director of Athletics at a press conference Friday afternoon.
“Maybe when he walked in the room. He had a great presence, so obviously he stood out above everyone,” said Kim Evans, the former Auburn women’s golf coach. “Then just in talking with him. You know when you talk to a lot of sitting AD’s they all are good. You don’t get there without being good. For me it was just knowing he was something special and that’s what we wanted at Auburn."
The six-person search committee consisted of Evans, BOT members and former football players Gaines Lanier and Quentin Riggins, former golfer and PGA player Jason Dufner, former gymnast Adrienne Lee and finance professor Beverly Marshall.
“I’ve been through searches through athletics or through a job, my profession, just throughout my career. I worked for three governors, a speaker and there’s some searches that are predetermined, that turned you off and this one here wasn’t,” Riggins said. “The process was very professional and we went in not knowing. Learned a lot about Auburn. We met a lot of talented people across the country and we learned what people thought about us. A lot of interest.
“But when Allen walked in the room, he commanded the presence but when we asked him questions, we didn’t get the standard answers or where they’d looked win the website and done some homework. Because if you’ve done these searches, some of them have this little system when they jump from job to job. He was just good. He was good on compliance questions, he was good in the fundraising questions, he was good on the operations. And what connected with me was his interest and passion for student athletes and life after athletics. We get them, we do a great job getting them to campus but we’re not really that good — and I’m not talking about Auburn but universally — of taking care of them when they’re leaving, when athletics is over.”
But Auburn’s search committee, led by school president Steven Leath, didn’t rely solely on an interview. They delved deeply into Greene’s background including speaking with current athletic directors, Duke’s Kevin White and UCF’s Danny White.
“You’re weighing years of experience vs. talent, and when the talent walked in you saw it. And he’s good,” Riggins said. “You also wanted some validation of what you saw and he’s worked for two sitting athletic directors who are outstanding in their field.
“When Kevin White came back and said of all the athletic directors he’s mentored or helped become leaders at Universities — and I think there’s about 10 including his son at Central Florida — Allen Greene is the best out of that group. That says a lot.”
In fact, the praise for Greene came from just about everybody the committee spoke with during the two month process.
“I heard, the committee heard, over and over again about Allen Greene. Everywhere I went, people I talked to in other states, people I knew in the athletics committee from my time and service on NCAA boards, said, 'You need to look at this guy.' And we did,” Leath said.
“They kept saying things like, 'He's a superstar. He's truly an elite leader. If you don't hire him, Steve, you'll regret this.' That resonated with me. One sitting AD told me this could be the best hire you make as president. Those are the kinds of things we heard about Allen. So the really good news is we got him.”
Auburn football head coach Gus Malzahn was able to meet with Greene and two other finalists — who he declined to name — during the selection process.
“He made a great impression on me early,” Malzahn said. “I know some of the people he’s worked with and just great reviews—not just doing the job, but as a person, so we’re really excited to have him as our leader of our athletic department.”