Guest Speaker
Danny White
Vice President and Director of Athletics at UCF
Topic: Vision for UCF Athletics
The Monthly Luncheon is a crowd favorite and we continue to focus on bringing you the Central Florida keynote speakers and topics you want to hear, right here in East Orlando. No need to drive across town, we're bringing them to you! Grow your business by connecting with influential business leaders from the community while enjoying a fantastic meal, no rubber chicken, cold broccoli, or mashed potato igloos here!
The Monthly Luncheons consist of open networking for the first 30 minutes followed by an awe-inspiring, earth-shattering, knock-your-socks-off speaker and are held the third Wednesday of the month, unless otherwise noted, at Stoneybrook East Golf Club.
Make sure to register no later than two days in advance to take advantage of your Member Discount!
This month our Guest Speaker is Danny White, who was named Vice President and Director of Athletics at UCF on November 18, 2015. White comes to UCF from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he has served as Director of Athletics since May 2012. Regarded as one of the nation’s most talented young athletic directors, White brings a strong record of success on the field and in the classroom to UCF.
White, a former college basketball player and New Orleans native, has quickly ascended in the ranks of college athletics leadership. Prior to his role as AD at Buffalo, White was at the University of Mississippi, Fresno State, and Northern Illinois.
During White’s three years at Buffalo, he, his colleagues and the Bulls’ student-athletes raised the program’s profile in the community and nationally. Their achievements include:
• Buffalo teams, including men’s basketball, earned three NCAA tournament bids in 2014-15, compared with just one in the prior 15 years. Then only 3 months after White’s departure both the Men’s and Women’s Basketball teams (coached by coaches who were hired by Danny) earned NCAA Tournament bids.
• UB student-athletes have recorded an average GPA of at least 3.0 for seven consecutive semesters. Prior to White’s arrival, the average GPA had never exceed 3.0 in any semester.
• Financial support for UB athletics has reached an all-time high, with the number of donors increasing by 137 percent since the start of a membership campaign in 2013.
• UB shattered its football attendance records in 2013 after adding interactive opportunities for fans, including a tailgate concert series with nationally known artists.
• The state’s largest public university and the flagship of the SUNY system, UB for the first time adopted a radio network that spanned the entire state.
White is a 2002 graduate of Notre Dame with a bachelor’s degree in business administration where he also played basketball. He earned master’s degrees in both business administration and sports administration from Ohio University. He is working to complete a PhD in higher education from the University of Mississippi, expecting to earn that degree in 2016.
White comes from a family deeply involved in intercollegiate athletics. His father, Kevin, is director of athletics at Duke University. His brother, Michael, is the head men’s basketball coach at the University of Florida. His brother, Brian, is the senior associate athletics director for development at the University of Missouri.
Danny and his wife, Shawn, have four children: Aidan, Molly, Caitlin and James.