North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Pondering a Difficult Move
5/18/2006 12:00:00 AM | Pack Athletics
May 18, 2006
BY Tim Peeler
RALEIGH - For more than 20 years, as a student, as an intern and most recently as the Associate Executive Director of the Wolfpack Club, Stephen Ponder has been tied to NC State.
The native of Marshall, NC, graduated from NC State with a degree in business management in 1989. In 1991, after getting a masters degree in sports management at Georgia Southern, Ponder was offered an internship and then a permanent job by former Wolfpack Club general secretary Charlie Bryant.
In recent years, Ponder has helped increase giving to the Wolfpack Club by handling the sales in Vaughn Towers and in the Red Zone, the new seats that will open in the north end zone this fall.
But last month, Ponder was offered a new opportunity, to become the Senior Associate Athletics Director for Development at Arizona State, a job he was recommended for by former NC State basketball coach Herb Sendek.
Ponder officially leaves NC State on Friday, but he recently spoke to www.gopack.com about the mixed emotions he has as he begins his new opportunity.
GoPack: What is the primary motivation for taking this position at this point in your career?
Ponder: My goal is to one day be the athletics director at NC State, and for me to move up in my career, this is a good move. If I owned my own business, I might be able to move next door. But in this profession, we are tied to where the schools are. When you get into it, you know that in this career path, whether it is athletics administration, fund-raising or coaching, in order to move up and prepare yourself for a better position somewhere, sometimes you have to make moves to different places. I just hope everyone understands that I love NC State, and I am not taking this job because I want to leave NC State. But I need this new experience.
GoPack: So how did this all come about?
Ponder: The night that Coach Sendek was announced as the head coach at Arizona State, I got a phone call from him at 11 that night. I was returning e-mails and everybody else in the house was asleep. I was watching the national championship game. He asked me what the score was because he is good friends with Billy Donovan. He said that the AD mentioned to me that she needed to hire a fundraiser. He told her that he had someone he wanted her to talk to. I went out for an interview, as one of the four they brought in.
GoPack: Had you been looking for something new?
Ponder: Not at all. But the thing that I kept going back to is that I love NC State and I have spent 15 years here. If I stayed here longer, will it help me to become the AD here or do I need to go somewhere else to build my resume? Do I need to go somewhere else to prove I can do something somewhere else? Professionally, I thought I needed to go somewhere else to get a different perspective. The new job reports straight to the AD. I will oversee the ticket office, major gifts and the Sun Angel Foundation. I get more management experience. I get more senior management experience by working with the AD's management team that I don't get here.
GoPack: I'm sure you had to do a quick study on Arizona State. What's the overall situation that you will be going into?
Ponder: The school has 80,000 students, with a vision to go to 90,000 in the next five years. There have 260,000 alumni. Of those, 160,000 in Arizona and a vast majority of them are in Phoenix or the surrounding area. Right now, they have 6,000 donors. It's a fertile ground right out the door. NC State has roughly half the number of alumni and the Wolfpack Club has at least three times the number of donors. They raise $5 million last year with 6,000 donors. They are just looking for someone to restructure what they do. Last year, the Wolfpack club raised just under $23 million last year. When I first got here was near the time that Bobby Purcell was taking over for Charlie Bryant as the executive director, the Wolfpack Club was at 8,100 members and had just raised about $3 million. I have grown with this position because of the opportunity Bobby and Charlie gave me, and I think that is a situation with great growth potential.
GoPack: How hard will it be for you to leave NC State and the state of North Carolina?
Ponder: Professionally, we have been through some pretty tough things here at NC State: getting Carter-Finley Stadium renovated, opening the RBC Center and a lot of other issues. But this is by far the most difficult thing I have ever done. I haven't really slept in a week. My wife and I prayed about it and we decided this was the right place for us to be to take the next step in my career. It is no doubt the hardest thing I have ever done. Personally, my heart is at NC State and I am always going to be an NC State.
GoPack: What do you take from your 15 years at the Wolfpack Club?
Ponder: No. 1, Bobby Purcell has always preached to us to treat every donor with respect. Don't look at what they give, but look at them as a person. Don't be swayed by the amount of money someone gives for the amount of attention you pay to them. You always treat someone with respect. We have really asked people to give money. The thing I learned here is that they are not going to give money unless you ask them. Out there [at Arizona State], to change the culture, we need to ask. The Wolfpack Club is very personal for me. Charlie Bryant and Bobby Purcell hired me for an internship. I have grown up here. Over the last couple of weeks, I have cried a lot with a lot of different people about how when I came here I really didn't know up from down. Donors from all over the state have really raised me. I take all of that experience with me.
GoPack: What are the things you had to finish up before you leave?
Ponder: I feel really good about where we stand with the Red Zone project as I prepare to leave. We are more than 70 percent sold. By this football season, I think we will be 100 percent sold out in the Red Zone. This move would have been very hard for me if it had come up a year ago, because of getting started on the Red Zone. I wouldn't have left that undone. The timing is perfect now, because I don't want to leave anything at NC State undone or not finished. I gave 15 years of my life to this. No matter where I live, I am always going to click on the GoPack website and try to figure out what is going on. I'll watch it on TV and be a State fan out there.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
