Name: Neil Sullivan
Position: Univ. of Dayton VP & AD
Age: 35
Where I’m from: Pittsburgh
Where I call home: Waynesville, Ohio
Focusing on right now: Consistency of success. We’ve had a lot of success in our sports programs, led by men’s and women’s basketball. But as most people in the business know, being good is one thing. Being good again and again and again is something else. So it's tough to be consistently excellent, and that’s what our pursuit is focused on.
Best advice: Bet your life, bet your career on people, and work for good people and a good organization. Who you’re with is more important than where you are. I sternly believe that. I got that advice, and I share that advice with young people that seek out my opinions on things, and just surround yourself with good, trustworthy, talented people.
A must for a new hire: They need to be functionally proficient in their role. The second thing that’s equally important is can they have good working relationships with people inside and outside of the organization? So they have to be competent, but they also have to be personally likeable, with high ethics. They need to be a good person, but have functional competence and personality and institutional cultural fit.
First thing in the morning: I typically wake up and try to get in some type of a workout, whether in my basement or a jog. Just something to kind of snap out of sleep mode and start the day, and then essentially just get ready to work and go.
Talking tech: Technology is a great thing and it has allowed everyone to be mobile and global and increase a lot of efficiencies. At the same time, it can lead to a lot of distractions and so there’s a lot of information available, but you have got to have a discipline to focus on things that actually matter versus giving attention thing that might not be as relevant.
Must have music: I grew up in the '80s and '90s, so I am maybe a little bit more old-school with my music. My family and I listen to a lot of country music.
Food for thought: If I could pick my ultimate meal, it would probably be surf and turf. But in all seriousness, I will eat anything.
How I unwind: Family. I have three boys below the age of 8, and when I am home, I am just with them. They are involved in a lot of sports and activities as well. So I just spend time with my wife and my boys.
Day in the life: My daily routine typically consists of a lot of meetings. You are just trying to get status updates from direct reports, kind of making sure you know what is going on inside your organization and the important status updates you need from each of the functional areas. And then spend a lot of time with people outside the organization, whether it is meeting them off-campus or in their city or state. After that, the time is really spent dealing with the external side of the organization and our supporters, customers, corporate partners and industry people.
