April 22, 2008

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Watch the full news conference

President Henry Bienen's Opening Statement

Welcome everybody, especially to the Phillips family. We're happy to have you as a part of the Northwestern family. Before I say anything about Jim and this occasion, I want to thank Bob Gundlach, who so wonderfully stepped in for us as an interim athletic director. If I had known that a professor of linguistics could have done so well I would have saved a lot of money and just kept him on. Anyway, thank you Bob, I know the entire Northwestern community thanks you.

This is a delayed press conference as you all know, and we did this delay out of respect both for Jim and for Northern Illinois, which suffered a horrible tragedy. We had already been deep in discussion with Jim, and I think Jim had already made up his mind to make the move, but out of respect for that horrible occasion that had happened to the family of Northern Illinois it was really best to delay it.

I am really excited to have Jim here. I'll let the Chairman of the Board say more about Jim, but what I want to say is I think Jim really understands what Northwestern is all about. He embraces the values about being competitive and wanting to have the great athletic success we've had while maintaining high academic standards.

One of the things everybody always said about Jim is that he cares about student-athletes first. I think he met with every student-athlete at Northern, and he wants to do the same thing here, which may be a burden or not, but I think it's wonderful thing to do. Jim knows us. He's a Chicago guy with a Chicago family. He's just going to be a superb athletic director for us. I'm really excited he and his family have decided to make this their new home and community. I think we'll continue to have great athletic success under Jim's leadership, and I think we'll continue to have the highest academic standards. That's what we're all about and that's what Jim's all about.

He's had a really terrific career for a relatively young man, and I know he is going to continue to build on the success that he had at Northern and at Notre Dame before that and will continue to really promote athletics. We expect more fannies in the seats under Jim's leadership, and we expect to build on the strength that we've always had. So, personally, I couldn't be happier about having Jim and his family with us at Northwestern. I'll now turn it over to Chairman of the Board, Mr. Pat Ryan.

Chairman of the Board Pat Ryan's Opening Statement

Thank you, Henry, and I'd like to add my welcome to the Phillips family. We're just delighted to have you and to have Jim as our 21st athletic director. For somebody who has either been following or involved in Northwestern University athletics for over 50 years, I've got a fairly long and deep perspective of what this opportunity and this job is all about. We couldn't have a better person coming in here to serve as our athletic director than Jim Phillips.

I've known Jim since his days at Notre Dame and I saw what a great job he did down there partnering with Kevin White. Notre Dame did not want to lose Jim Phillips but knew he would be moving on to greater responsibility and to moving his career forward. I followed him fairly closely and his terrific job at Northern Illinois, so I know we've got a proven winner. I know he is a man of very high character, tremendous work ethic and great leadership skills. He'll be an outstanding athletic director.

I've known Kevin White for a very long time, and I asked Kevin to tell me what I should know about Jim Phillips that I didn't already know. He said: "Well, he's pretty easy to get to know, so you probably know a lot about him, but I'll tell you two things that are really important for you to know. First, he's the best young athletic director in the country. He's a great leader, but he has a particularly great skill at marketing and he has wonderful sensitivity for the importance of high academic standards. You'll find he has a great marketing mind."

I found in the past we've had wonderful athletic directors, and Mark Murphy did a great job here, but we all know we have a great product here, and its tremendous respect for academic and athletic excellence, particularly under the leadership of President Bienen. We have a great, great product to sell beyond the Chicago area, but certainly to the Chicago metropolitan market, and I have every confidence that Northwestern's athletics are on the rise. I also think the participation and support will be on the rise under Jim's leadership.

I'll just say I am traveling a lot during this Olympic year on business and that there is Wildcat fever all over the world. I run in to sports writers that can't get enough of Northwestern athletics because they bled purple having been a student here. We've got a great foundation to build on and a great leader we're bringing in here. I`m just so happy that Jim is our 21st athletic director. Jim, welcome.

Jim Phillips' Opening Statement

Thank you. Thanks and before I get started with some comments about just how honored and humbled and excited that I am, as well as my family. I'd be remiss if I didn't thank some people. You don't get to this position unless there's a lot of support. First and foremost, to President Bienen and Chairman Ryan, words will never express my gratitude for this opportunity. This truly is a dream for my family and I to come and to serve such an outstanding institution like Northwestern. I'll only try to repay you with the work that comes ahead. There were a lot of reasons why I wanted to be here at Northwestern University, but I promise you the top two reasons sit to my right and left, so thank you both.

As President Bienen mentioned, the great community of Northern Illinois University, I'll be forever grateful to that community and those folks. Part of our heart will always reside in DeKalb. To President John Peters, the athletic department staff, to the student-athletes there, they were just so much fun to work with. I wouldn't be sitting in this seat today without their support and their accomplishments, so thanks to them for sure. As President Bienen mentioned and Chairman Ryan, two terrific folks that I follow today are Bob Gundlach and Mark Murphy. Our interim athletic director Bob Gundlach couldn't have been a better friend or athletic director though all of this and a tough transition. Bob, thank you and I appreciate all your guidance and counsel throughout. To Mark Murphy, who I have an unbelievable amount of respect for. He's been a close friend and I will tell you I almost dropped the phone when he called me in December to tell me he was leaving to go to the Green Bay Packers and thought I'd be a good replacement for him. Rest assured there won't be anybody who replaces Mark Murphy or Bob Gundlach. Those are the biggest shoes to fill, but I'll be Jim Phillips and I'll try to move on at Northwestern to greater heights.

To the members of the search committee, thank you. Thank you for your confidence and in trusting the leadership of the department to me. I very much appreciate all the members I see sitting out in the audience that were part of the committee and a couple folks on campus that were great: Eugene Sunshine and Eugene Lowe; Eugene is in the back of the audience. Thanks for holding my hand through all of this. Al Cubbage and Mike Wolf, our media relations folks, thank you again for helping us through a tough time. This sure is a special moment thanks to you.

And finally, thanks to my family. I don't want to look at my sisters because they'll be crying here shortly. Between Laura and I, there is nothing greater in our life than our faith and our family and now Northwestern University is a part of that family. Thanks for always being supportive and teaching me the way as I watched in your footsteps. To my dad, you've heard this before Dad, and I've said it privately and publicly, you'll always be my hero and I try and emulate you every day that I get up. It's been such an honor to be your son and again I love you to death and you mean more to me than you'll ever know. To a deceased mother who we've missed for 23 years, I say thanks to her. My second mother that I see hiding back there behind the cameras, Laura's mother, Regina Hayes, you have more strength and courage than anybody could ask for. We all mourn the loss of Dad, but we'll get through this together as a family. And to my beautiful wife Laura and our four beautiful children, you have no idea what an honor it is for me to be your father and how much I love each and every one of you. This is just going to be a great, great, great experience for us here as we join the Northwestern family. So, thank you for indulging me in a few comments there but the family is big so the thank yous were big.

As I mentioned, I can't express how honored and humbled and excited I am to take over this program and to lead Northwestern athletics into the future. I really feel like I've come home. To be raised in in the Portage Park neighborhood in the northwest side of Chicago, I can't tell you the number of times I would come to games and events here on this campus. As a young person, there were certain teams that you followed and loved and Northwestern was that team, it just was. It was something that we did. Then to marry a young girl from Des Plaines whose family would come to Northwestern's campus and to Northwestern beach and who lived after college here in Evanston. It's poetry in motion. It's just surreal we're at this moment. It is such a great honor.

As I look toward the future, I try to understand the past. I will tell you about the fabric of Northwestern and the history that dates back to 1850. A marvelous day on May 21st 1850, nine visionaries met in an unpretentious office upstairs in a hardware store near Lake and Dearborn in downtown Chicago, and out of that vision came the understanding that they wanted to create an institution of higher learning to cover this vast Northwest territory. At the time the Northwest Territory included Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and parts of Minnesota, and shortly thereafter they declared what the mission of the institution was going to be. It was going to be a university of supreme excellence in all of its parts and that remains true today. Simply stated, that is what we are going to try to do in the department of intercollegiate athletics. Commit to that excellence as the university has done for now 158 years. That's why I'm so honored; that's why I'm humbled and excited about what lies ahead for Northwestern University athletics.

People have asked about what my vision and mission is and what I want to do here at Northwestern. I've had a chance to meet about 14 of the 19 teams. We have 471 student-athletes and I've had a chance to see 350 of them so far. The rest of the meetings will transpire near the end of this week. Very unfiltered and very directly, we will try to provide each of our student-athletes with a world-class student-athlete experience academically, socially and athletically. Academically, no one has done it better. We will never take that for granted and that will continue to be our point of focus and difference here at Northwestern. There has been a wonderful social consciousness and awareness here about giving back and about lending a helping hand to those less fortunate. We're going to expect that of our student-athletes because that's what Northwestern student-athletes and students do wherever they flourish and work and live. They give back to those less fortunate and that will be a cornerstone of that world-class experience. And finally, we want them to have a wonderful athletic experience, a world-class athletic experience. They're very gifted, they're very talented and they are the very best of the best. We need to provide them with the resources to be successful. I'm trying to find out what all of those resources are and I'm trying to get a handle of that. That's what it's going to be about: providing each of those 471 student-athletes with a world-class student-athlete experience.

There's certain guiding principles that we'll follow and challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, but I'll tell you that we will on that world-class experience. We'll stay strict to the rules of Northwestern, the Big Ten and the NCAA. That's non-negotiable and never has been and never will be. We'll be fiscally responsible, which is paramount to the success of the past and to the success of the future. We'll represent the institution in a first-class manner in all of our programs. Finally, we'll win championships across the board in all 19 sports. I don't see how you can expect any less or not have that be the target of all 19 sports. That's what Northwestern is and that's what we'll strive to across the board in all 19 sports. With that, I'll open it up to questions, but again I want to thank President Bienen and Chairman Ryan for this incredible opportunity for the Phillips' to come home and have the chance to serve such a marvelous place.

On increasing attendance at sporting events...

With about 60-plus family members already here in attendance, I think we'll increase attendance. (laughter) In all seriousness, as I look at some of the key areas that I need to address, let me give you just a few and I'll finish with the marketing and promoting. One is resource acquisition. You have to manage that like a business from a finance standpoint and anyone who has been successful, and I look to my left and right at two people who have been ultra-successful, you must reinvest in your organization. That is something that you just have to do if you want it or you're hopeful it will prosper and grow, but you have no chance unless you reinvest in the operation.

We will spend some time on personnel. Jim Collins wrote a great book that a lot of people read 10 years ago: "Good to Great." It is about getting the right people on the bus and getting them in the right places. Facilities, we'll take a look at that, but the marketing and promoting of Wildcat athletics will be a top priority. Chicago is what I call the x-factor for Northwestern in the Big Ten. Nobody has the city of Chicago at its doorstep. There are alums from Big Ten schools in the area for sure, but there are over eight million people in the MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) that love college athletics that don't have a closeness to any of the other Big Ten schools. That is the group we have to capture, identify, encourage, and excite about coming out to support all of our teams. I think that there is absolutely a market for those folks.

The proximity, the competition, the success, the coaches, and the student athletes are as good here as anywhere I have ever been. That generates revenue and resources that you can reinvest. It helps with recruiting and the current state of the program and people feeling good about Wildcat Athletics. We have a great team in place already in the athletic department that has been sharing ideas with me and has been doing some terrific things to date so we'll look forward to moving that forward.

On a short-term agenda and specific goals to be accomplished before the end of the academic year...

Right, I had a chance to meet with the entire staff, all 161 staff employees a week ago today right in his room and I introduced myself to the group. I've asked each one of them to come in to see me for a 30-minute meeting with the new guy and for them to tell me about themselves and to tell me about Northwestern. They will help get me up to speed with the things that we've done. I've asked them each to come up with three goals that they have from now until the end of summer, and also to do a SWOT analysis about our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. I don't want them to be influenced by anybody else, but the come in and tell me what these things are. That is really a goal of mine as I get my feet on the ground here, to get around and get a chance to meet all 161 employees.

Along with that, to meet all 471 student-athletes and our 19 teams, and for them to know who the new director of athletics is and for them to know what that vision is about providing them with a world-class student athlete experience. Those are two things we are running fast with already.

My poor secretary and assistant Debbie Robert, I have her heading spinning with all the meetings and everything else that were doing, but it's the only way that we can get it right. We want to build it to last long-term and there is nothing wrong with the department right now but if we're going to have long-term success I think it is important to take am moment right now and to understand it better.

On his family changing their wardrobe to purple...

Let me tell you, the Phillips family did that underground, and they didn't tell me of course. I know one of the sisters orchestrated that. None of them were allowed through that door unless they had something purple or otherwise they were left in the hallway out there. It was Nancy. Nancy is number five of the six girls, so number eight out of the 10, and her husband works here in Evanston for the city and they have great ties to this community as well.

I will tell you that the girls, when Laura and I told them this terrific news about us coming to Northwestern, the girls were sold immediately, Madeline and Meredith, because purple is their favorite color. So they love the cheerleading outfits and they'll bask in a lot of purple these days.