Kevin White

Kevin White has served as Deputy Director of Athletics at Clemson since April 19, 2022. Now in his third year, White has helped lead several of Clemson’s strategic campaigns, facilitated significant student-athlete wellness growth, facility enhancement, athletic success, operational efficiency and serves as a connection point for the Board of Trustees.

White assists in running the day-to-day operations of the department as the second in command, playing a key role in the Athletic Department’s relationship with University leadership on several key issues.

White has also maintained a consistent presence in Clemson’s in-house multimedia rights organization and its NIL programming and developed relationships as the sport supervisor for the three-time national champion and seven-time College Football Playoff participant football program and 2024 Elite Eight men’s basketball program.  White works closely with Coach Dabo Swinney and Coach Brad Brownell to ensure their programs are positioned for success on and off the court/field.  He also serves as a lead administrator, helping to construct revenue share agreements, and is heavily involved in negotiations with student-athletes and agents.  White led the effort to partner with ESM, a world class marketing agency, which has competitively positioned Clemson to bring legitimate NIL deals to student-athletes through commercial partnerships.

During his time at Clemson, he has provided leadership and oversight to nearly every area, including the business office, facilities, grounds, fan experience and capital projects. He also helps manage external operations, which includes revenue generation and brand development.  The external areas also include communications, creative, broadcast productions and NIL.  The external team developed unique partnership with Gray Media that has positioned Clemson to have a consistent weekly presence in front of as many as 15 million households across the southeast.  White is at the forefront of many operational programs, such as the creation of the Student-Athlete Leadership Team (SALT), engagement of professional development opportunities for aspiring athletic executives and streamlined the administrative end-of-season measurement.

Additionally, White serves in a key leadership role with IPTAY (Clemson Athletics’ fundraising arm), working with IPTAY operations and development strategies that include records in annual fund giving and major gifts during the past three years.  IPTAY’s annual fund has exceeded $40 million annually (among the best in the country) in addition to more than $30 million in major gifts.  His oversight of the ticket office has recently seen a year over year growth from $32 million to $38 million this past fiscal year.

White has played a significant role in Clemson’s investment into student-athlete wellness, as the department recently expanded its sports, opened the Athlete Recovery Center and has construction underway on the 50,000-square-foot Performance and Wellness Facility, which opened in early 2025.

During his three years as sport supervisor, the men’s basketball program has experienced the best three year stretch in school history that includes an Elite Eight appearance, 74 total wins in three years, and ranking second amongst all schools in ACC conference wins.

At Clemson, White has been a part of six head coaching searches, including Erik Bakich, who led the baseball team to an ACC Championship in his first season.  In 2023, White was instrumental in hiring both Boomer Saia, who led the women’s tennis program back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018, and Brandon Wagner who led the men’s tennis program back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013.

White was also named to the LEAD1 Association Diversity Fellowship Program Class of 2023-24 and the President’s Leadership Institute 2023-24 cohort, a program managed and implemented by Clemson President Jim Clements.

Prior to his time at Clemson, White has served at Northwestern as Deputy AD and Chief Operating Officer, where he oversaw a $110 million operating budget. While at Northwestern, he successfully coordinated nearly $450 million in capital project facility financing, managed department contract negotiations, advised on head coach staffing decisions, and collaborated on department strategy under Jim Phillips (current ACC Commissioner) and Derrick Gragg.

While at SMU as Chief Operating Officer, the men’s basketball program went 82-17 (including a 50-3 home record) which is the best three-year span in school history—which included several Top Ten rankings, multiple AAC Championships, and NCAA Tournament berths.  His involvement has also included integral engagement with fundraising groups, developing a multimedia rights strategy, and several other initiatives to increase revenue.

White’s engagements outside of the department included positions on the Big Ten basketball working groups, the Big Ten Joint Group, as well as numerous other leadership committees at the Big Ten and LEAD1.

White has worked with head coaches who have won National Championships during their coaching career:  Dabo Swinney- Football (2-time), Larry Brown- Men’s Basketball (NCAA Champion and NBA Champion), Kelly Amonte-Hiller- Women’s Lacrosse (8-time), Mike Noonan- Men’s Soccer (2- time), Tracy Fuchs- Women’s Field Hockey (2-time).

The Chattanooga, Tennessee native earned a bachelors degree from the University of North Carolina, where he was a member of the junior varsity basketball team.  He also earned a master’s degree at Georgia State and an MBA at Kennesaw State. He and his wife, Jari (Atlanta, Georgia native) have three children, Justin, Kamden and Kinley.  During his prep years, White played basketball at 8-time National Champion, Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, VA.