THE FLATS – Georgia Tech director of athletics Todd Stansbury accepted his award as one of the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 2021 Most Admired CEOs on Thursday night at the Coca-Cola Roxy Theater.
Stansbury was one of 39 Atlanta-area CEOs to receive the prestigious award, and one of only two executives recognized in the sports and entertainment category.
VIDEO: Todd Stansbury acceptance speech at 2021 Atlanta Business Chronicle Most Admired CEOs Dinner at the Coca-Cola Roxy Theater
In his fifth year as the athletics director at his alma mater, Stansbury oversaw one of the most successful years in Georgia Tech athletics history in 2020-21. Despite the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Yellow Jackets placed 44th in the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Directors’ Cup standings, the nation’s most-recognized all-sports ranking for college athletics. Georgia Tech’s 44th-place finish was its best since 2004-05 (31st) and its third-best finish since the Directors’ Cup’s inception in 1993-94 (the Jackets also placed 31st in 2003-04). Georgia Tech and Texas Tech were the only institutions among the top 50 in the 2020-21 Directors’ Cup final standings that have 17 sports or less (Texas Tech, which placed 43rd, also has 17 sports).
The Yellow Jackets’ 44th-place Directors’ Cup finish came on the heels of 11 of their 17 teams earning points in the final standings in 2020-21 based on NCAA postseason participation. It was the most Tech teams to earn points in a single year since 12 did so in 2009-10.
The 44th-place finish represents a remarkable turnaround for Georgia Tech under the watch of Stansbury. Just three years ago (2017-18), Tech only had three teams that earned Directors’ Cup points and placed 121st in the final standings.
Additionally, the 2020-21 academic year saw 19 Georgia Tech student-athletes earn a total of 26 all-America honors (up from a total of nine all-America honors in 2017-18).
Tech’s student-athletes have also excelled academically under Stansbury’s watch, with six-straight semesters of a 3.0 mean grade point average or higher, including a department-record 3.23 mean GPA during the 2020 spring semester. Last fall, Georgia Tech matched an all-time high with an 89% NCAA Graduation Success Rate and, in 2019, Tech was the only institution from a Power Five conference (Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, Southeastern Conference) with a multiyear NCAA Academic Progress Rate higher than the national average in each of its sports.
Georgia Tech has received a slew of department-wide awards since Stansbury’s arrival in 2016. In 2020-21 alone, Tech earned two of the college athletics’ most prestigious awards for academics (the N4A Model Practices for Academics Award, which lauded GT’s JumpStart Jackets “Virtual Edge” program for first-year student-athletes) and community service (the NACDA/Fiesta Bowl Community Service Award, which recognized Tech’s #AllVoteNoPlay initiative to encourage participation in national and local elections).
With Stansbury at the helm, Tech athletics has also enjoyed great fundraising success. The Alexander-Tharpe Fund, Georgia Tech athletics’ fundraising arm, set records in consecutive years with $58.3 million in gifts and commitments in the 2020 fiscal year and $53.3 million in FY 2019. Athletics Initiative 2020, Tech athletics’ three-year initiative to raise $125 million from 2018-20, far surpassed its goal by raising a total of $175.39 million by its Dec. 31, 2020 deadline. State-of-the-art facilities projects that have already been completed during Stansbury’s tenure include new locker rooms for Tech football and women’s basketball, Phase II of renovations at Mac Nease Baseball Park, which included the construction of Champions Hall on the facility’s third-base side, and the installation of new videoboards at Bobby Dodd Stadium’s Callaway Plaza, Mac Nease Park, softball’s Mewborn Field, the Byers Tennis Complex and volleyball’s O’Keefe Gymnasium.
Stansbury officially began his tenure as Georgia Tech’s director of athletics on Nov. 28, 2016. The Oakville, Ontario native originally came to Tech as football student-athlete in 1980 and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering in 1984. After a stint in the Canadian Football League, he returned to Atlanta and worked in the banking industry before returning to GT as an academic advisor for the Yellow Jackets’ football program in 1988. He was promoted to assistant athletics director for academics in 1991, a role that he held until 1995.
After leaving Georgia Tech in ’95, Stansbury’s career included stops at Houston (associate A.D. – 1997-2000) and Oregon State (executive associate A.D. – 2003-12), as well as three stints as an athletics director at East Tennessee State (2000-03), UCF (2012-15) and Oregon State (2015-16), before he became A.D. at Tech in 2016.
To be considered for the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Most Admired CEOs award, an individual must be an established leader with a strong record of innovation in their field, outstanding financial performance, a commitment to quality, a strong vision, a commitment to diversity in the workplace and significant contributions to the metro community.
2021 GEORGIA TECH FOOTBALL TICKETS
Season tickets, Stinger Mobile Passes and 3-Game Mini-Packs for Georgia Tech’s 2021 home football schedule are all on sale now and are the only way to guarantee the best seats for the Yellow Jackets’ seven home games this fall, including the highly anticipated “Mayhem at Mercedes-Benz Stadium” matchup versus North Carolina on Sept. 25 and the return of “Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate” when archrival Georgia visits Bobby Dodd Stadium on Nov. 27. Single-game tickets go on sale Monday, Aug. 2.
Click HERE for more information on 2021 Georgia Tech football tickets and click HERE to sign up for register for exclusive single-game presale opportunities.
Alexander-Tharpe Fund
The Alexander-Tharpe Fund is the fundraising arm of Georgia Tech athletics, providing scholarship, operations and facilities support for Georgia Tech’s 400-plus student-athletes. Be a part of developing Georgia Tech’s Everyday Champions and helping the Yellow Jackets compete for championships at the highest levels of college athletics by supporting the Annual Athletic Scholarship Fund, which directly provides scholarships for Georgia Tech student-athletes. To learn more about supporting the Yellow Jackets, visit atfund.org.
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