**WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. –** Wake Forest University President Susan R. Wente announced today the extension of John Currie’s contract and his promotion to Vice President & Director of Athletics, effective July 1.
“The University continues to benefit from the tremendous reach, brand identity, and engagement Wake Forest Athletics enables for our institution and wider communities,” said President Wente. “Over the past five years, John Currie has built a championship culture and promoted excellence across all our sports.
He has recruited an exceptional athletics administrative team, hired and retained outstanding coaches, and always ensures that the focus remains on our more than 400 student-athletes and the exceptional education they receive at Wake Forest. John continues to provide extraordinary leadership for Wake Forest Athletics during what undoubtedly will be looked back upon as one of the most turbulent periods in college sports’ long history.
His appointment also as Vice President reflects his broad collaborations across the University as a whole; for example, his recent leadership role in the Baity Street project. John is always looking for solutions and for ways to move Wake Forest forward, for Athletics and for the University as a whole.”
“I have frequently described John Currie to everyone, including our past and present university presidents, as a ‘3T’ leader; he is tireless, thoughtful, and transparent,” Faculty Athletics Representative Dr. Peter Brubaker said. “From the day John started at Wake Forest, I have been impressed with his tireless energy and the effort he dedicates as our AD. John is a very inclusive and thoughtful leader, and he is someone who helped elevate Wake Forest during his transformative tenure at his alma mater. I was thrilled to hear this well-deserved news for a valued leader within our community.”
“Mary Lawrence, our children, and I are extremely grateful to call Wake Forest and Winston-Salem home,” Currie said. “The unwavering support our Athletics staff and student-athletes receive from President Wente, the Board of Trustees, and faculty and staff is second-to-none. Thanks to the cumulative efforts, accomplishments, and contributions of our student-athletes, coaches, staff, donors, past leaders like Ron Wellman and Dr. Gene Hooks, and 2.7 million Demon Deacon fans nationwide, Wake Forest has the fastest-growing brand in the ACC and Power conferences and we are stronger than at any point in our University’s history. I’m especially lucky to work on behalf of our 13 elite head coaches who truly provide the leadership to ensure a World Class Student-Athlete Experience for all 425 competitors in our programs.”
Since his introduction as Wake Forest’s sixth athletics director on March 4, 2019, Currie’s team has focused on delivering a Model Intercollegiate Athletics Program centered on five core goals:
– A World Class Student-Athlete Experience
– Integrity in Academics, Compliance, Finance, Inclusion, and Safety
– Value to the University, Winston-Salem, and Triad Communities
– Win Championships
– The Best Fan Experience in North Carolina
His tenure has included academic highlights such as the most recent Demon Deacons’ graduate success rate of a record-score of 96 percent, including eight programs scoring a perfect 100 percent rate. A record total of 317 Wake Forest student-athletes earned spots on the 2022-23 Atlantic Coast Conference Honor Roll.
In competition, Demon Deacon student-athletes have produced memorable moments including the 2023 women’s golf national championship, five ACC team titles, the 2021 ACC Atlantic Division football crown, four bowl trips, and seven individual ACC titles. In 2023, Wake Forest baseball captivated the nation, ascending to a number one national ranking en route to a return to the College World Series for the first time since 1955. Six Demon Deacon coaches have been named ACC coach of the year since 2021, with women’s golf coach Kim Lewellen and baseball coach Tom Walter earning national honors, and thanks to the support of President Wente and university leadership, all have signed contract extensions.
Grassroots fan engagement, strengthening community connections, and delivering the best fan experience in North Carolina have been hallmarks of Currie’s tenure. The 2019 football season’s opening night featured the first-ever joint marching band performance of Wake Forest’s Spirit of Old Gold and Black and Winston-Salem State University’s famous Red Sea of Sound. The Demon Deacons have capitalized on Coach Dave Clawson’s leadership to achieve multiple sellouts and a home record of 23-7 since 2019. In the fall of 2021, Inside Higher Ed provided national acclaim for Wake Forest’s innovative student pregame tailgate zone, which brought together 29 campus organizations and over 80 percent of the Wake Forest student body to multiple football games.
Collaboration with Wake’s in-house Communications and External Relations staff led to the launch of the popular DEACTOWN concept. For the first time ever, Wake Forest hosted ESPN’s College Gameday on September 12, 2020, generating exposure value to the University in excess of $13 million.
Currie’s resolve to return Demon Deacons basketball to ACC relevance was demonstrated when he navigated the challenges of the pandemic to make the only major men’s basketball coaching change of 2020, introducing Steve Forbes as Wake Forest’s new head men’s basketball coach.
Recognized as ACC Coach of the Year in 2022, Forbes’ recruiting successes include ACC Players of the Year Alondes Williams and Tyree Appleby, 2022 first-round NBA draft pick Jake Laravia, and 2024 first-team All-ACC honoree Hunter Sallis, all of whom have helped lead the Deacons to 34 ACC victories and 65 overall wins over the last three seasons, the winningest stretch in Winston-Salem in 20 years. Meanwhile, the 2023-24 Demon Deacons set a program record with seven Academic All-ACC players and set an all-time Joel Coliseum attendance record when 14,744 witnessed Wake defeat No. 8 Duke on February 24, 2024.
Currie has continued to bolster his reputation as a relationship developer, revenue generator, and facility builder. Deacon Club donors have responded in record fashion, including a new all-time Wake Forest Athletics giving record of $37.5 million in FY21 and a total of $163 million in cash gifts since his arrival.
Donor investments enabled Wake Athletics to sprint out of the pandemic and deliver the Dr. Caryl Guth and Chris Paul Family Women’s & Men’s Basketball Clubhouses in 2022, and the new McCreary Football Complex in 2023 – projects completely donor-funded and free of long-term debt.
June 2023 saw Wake Forest and hometown Allegacy Federal Credit Union announce a historic stadium naming partnership for the home of the best football program in the state of North Carolina and a groundbreaking agreement establishing Truist as an Official Banking Partner of Wake Forest Athletics and Presenting Partner of Wake Forest Women’s Athletics.
The Deacs have further elevated their commitment to equity with a $100 million initiative to benefit Wake Women’s Athletics. Recognizing the heroes of Wake Forest’s role in desegregating major college sports in the South, Currie’s staff created the Robert Grant and Kenneth “Butch” Henry Trailblazer Award in 2021.
Working closely with university and local leaders, Currie has played a leadership role in launching the revitalization of the 80 acres adjacent to Allegacy Stadium, Joel Coliseum, Couch Ballpark, the Intercollegiate Tennis Center, and the City of Winston-Salem Fairgrounds into a transformational, live-work-play mixed-use development to benefit the entire community. Together with Mayor Allen Joines, Representative Donny Lambeth, and other leaders, Currie helped the City of Winston-Salem secure a $35 million grant for infrastructure to support the project.
A veteran athletics leader with three decades of experience in the ACC, Big 12, and SEC, Currie is set to enter his 15th year as a Power-5 athletics director this fall. On March 15, 2022, he was recognized for the second time as a National Association of College Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Athletics Director of the Year. Previously, he was recognized in 2013 as both a NACDA Athletics Director of the Year and recipient of the Bobby Dodd Athletic Director Award.
Currie serves as a member of the Forsyth County Tourism and Development Authority and has been named to Business North Carolina Magazine’s Power List. He was a Sports Business Journal Forty Under 40 winner in 2011, taught classes as an adjunct faculty member for five years at Columbia University in New York, and is a life member of the Fiesta Bowl Board of Directors.
A 1993 Wake Forest graduate, Currie earned his master’s in sports administration from the University of Tennessee. He and his wife of 24 years, Mary Lawrence, are the proud parents of three children, Jack, Gigi, and Mary-Dell.
