Karlton Creech Named University of Maine Director of Athletics

University of Maine President Paul Ferguson has named Karlton Creech director of athletics, effective Feb. 10.

Creech, 41, currently senior associate director of athletics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC), will bring 10 years of senior athletics administration experience to UMaine. Creech was one of three finalists invited to interview on campus by the search committee out of a national pool of 68 applicants. The committee, led by Dr. Robert Strong, professor of finance and NCAA faculty representative, consisted of faculty, staff and community partners.

Since 2012, Creech has been UNC senior associate director of athletics, serving as chief of staff and overseeing the department’s capital projects, human resources and facilities. From 2004–12, he was associate executive director for UNC’s Educational Foundation Inc., where he managed capital projects (including coordination of the $88 million football stadium expansion), the Annual Fund, marketing, fundraising and ticket sales programs, as well as donor stewardship and development. He also worked for the Student-Aid Association at North Carolina State University from 2001–04, coordinating ticket sales and fundraising.

“I am so pleased that Karlton will be joining the UMaine leadership team,” said President Ferguson. “He brings to us a remarkable record of athletics leadership and management at the University of North Carolina, one of our nation’s great public research universities. His level of professionalism, coupled to his strong experience in fundraising and management, will no doubt move Black Bear Athletics to new levels of excellence and community engagement.

“I look forward to welcoming Karlton and his wife, Staci, to campus this spring,” President Ferguson added. “I want to especially thank Seth Woodcock for his superb service as interim AD, as well as the entire Athletics Department for their dedicated work during this interim period. I am enthusiastic about their partnership with Karlton.”

Creech, a native of Chapel Hill, received a bachelor of arts degree in political science from North Carolina State University and will complete a master of arts degree in management and leadership from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., in 2014. His wife, Staci, a Pennsylvania native who attended UNC on a golf scholarship, received a bachelor of arts in elementary education and currently teaches at the elementary level.

“I am thrilled to be named the next director of athletics at the University of Maine,” Creech said.  “It will truly be a privilege to serve the student-athletes, coaches and staff of UMaine Athletics.

“I would like to thank President Ferguson for entrusting me with the responsibility to lead UMaine Athletics. President Ferguson’s Blue Sky thinking is inspiring, and I look forward to partnering in the achievement of his vision for the University of Maine to become the most distinctively student-centered and community-engaged of the American Research Universities.

“Staci and I are proud to be the newest members of the UMaine family, and we are eager to build strong relationships throughout the community.”

Contact: Margaret Nagle, 207.581.3745