UM Alumni Association Director Accepts Leadership Position with Gators

OXFORD, Miss. (Press Release) -– Tim Walsh, executive director of the Ole Miss Alumni Association, has accepted a position as assistant vice president for alumni affairs at the University of Florida. Effective March 2, he will serve in a leadership capacity reporting to the executive director, with responsibility for managing operations.

Walsh, 53, is a Memphis native who has worked with the University of Mississippi alumni association for almost 25 years. He earned his bachelor’s degree in public administration in 1983 and a master’s degree in higher education in 1991, both from UM. For a short time after graduation, he worked with a family business in Memphis, but soon returned to the university.

He started in Alumni Affairs working with the alumni club program under longtime executive director Herb Dewees, whom Walsh credits as his mentor in learning the business of managing an alumni association. Walsh became executive director in 2008.

“It is with mixed emotions that we wish Tim the very best in his new role at the University of Florida,” UM Chancellor Dan Jones said. “We are proud of every alumnus whose accomplishments lead to recognition as one of the best in his field, but we are at the same time sad to see one of our accomplished leaders move on.”

The Florida Alumni Association includes a network of 100 alumni clubs around the world and 50,000 dues-paying alumni and friends. The organization’s goal is to double its membership by 2017. The Ole Miss association includes 27,000 dues-paying members and 70 functioning alumni clubs.

“With Tim’s leadership, our association grew to a record number of dues-paying members, became one of the top two in the SEC in alumni per capita giving and established a strong relationship with our alumni,” Jones said. “He earned the trust and confidence of our volunteer leaders and university leadership.”

Jones said Walsh’s many Ole Miss friends will be looking forward to this fall’s football matchup against the Florida Gators. “We’ll be watching Tim’s reaction to the question, ‘Are you ready?'”

Walsh said he is particularly proud of the alumni association’s growth, recalling, “We thought it was an ambitious goal to even get past the 20,000-member mark.”

The addition of a dozen new clubs across the country, enhanced alumni communication through an expanded magazine and social media, the opening of the $21.5 million Inn at Ole Miss, retirement of the Inn’s $400,000 bond debt four years early, the restoration and expansion of the Triplett Alumni Center, and the many colleagues and alumni who have become close friends are among the many special memories of his time here, he said.

Jones will name a search committee this month to seek a new executive director.

Contact: PR Director Danny Blanton, 662-915-1678, dblanton@olemiss.edu

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