The UCLA Athletic Department has been given a slight
face-lift.
The department has recently reshaped its structure within the
senior athletic staff with the addition of Ross Bjork as the senior
associate athletic director of external relations.
Bjork, a 32-year-old from Dodge City, Kan., spent the last two
years as an executive staff member of the athletic department at
the University of Miami in Florida. Prior to that he worked 6.5
years as a member of the athletic development staff at the
University of Missouri.
Along with the hiring of Bjork, UCLA Athletic Director Dan
Guerrero announced the promotion of three members of the Bruin
athletic department staff. Petrina Long, former associate athletic
director and senior women’s administrator, and Ken Weiner,
former associate athletic director of operations, have been
promoted to senior athletic directors. Ken McGuire has been
promoted to associate athletic director of development.
The realignment is all a part of a greater vision for the
athletic department that all of the staff ““ most notably
Guerrero ““ have been working toward.
“This reorganization is a little bit of unfolding of the
general trend of giving our coaches and student athletes as much
support as possible,” Long said. “Dan Guerrero is
committed to supporting the coaches and athletes as much as
possible, and this enhancement of programs already existing and new
hires is part of his commitment.”
Bjork’s position has never before existed at UCLA, but
many other universities have adopted the similar positions to
enhance external affairs such as fundraising and donor networking
of the universities.
“It is a direction many universities have taken,”
Long said.
“The external relations position really pulls all external
elements into one primary, cohesive unit. We think that Ross will
be successful and this alignment of affairs will be
successful.”
During Bjork’s two years at the University of Miami, the
total athletic gifts and annual giving increased by a million
dollars, whereas Miami’s capital campaign for athletics
jumped from $32 million to $48 million.
Bjork will not only head UCLA fundraising, but will also oversee
marketing and serve as the athletic department’s link with
the general manager of Bruin Sports Properties and ISP Sports,
which is the new national corporate partner of UCLA.
“Ross has great talent,” Long said. “He has
been at a couple of Division I institutions which are in similar
situations to UCLA. Miami, like Los Angeles, is a large
metropolitan area with a lot of competition vying for interest and
dollars of the people in the area.”
“He is very enthusiastic and has a great love for all
things Bruin.”
According to Long, the task at hand is to continue to expand
upon a history of excellence at UCLA, and the addition of Bjork to
the Bruin staff is a step in the right direction.
“Our goal is to ensure the success from the past,”
Long said. “We have 97 NCAA titles, and we want to keep that
up. We have to position ourselves for the future and not just rely
on our past successes. Ross is coming into a new position with a
lot of experience. It’s a win-win situation.”