Gene Taylor Position: Director of Athletics Institution: North Dakota State University

Gene Taylor came to North Dakota State in the summer of 2001. In his first year as the director of athletics at North Dakota State, Taylor was asked to spearhead a comprehensive study and evaluation of the Bison athletics department. It resulted in an NCAA reclassification from Division II to Division I that has met or exceeded expectations.

In August 2002, NDSU announced its plan to begin Division I competition in 2004-05. The Bison were without conference affiliation, but the landscape quickly changed.

Taylor played an instrumental part of forming the Great West Football Conference in February 2004, an affiliation that gave the Bison football program an immediate home in Division I. Taylor has chaired the coaches committee since the league's inception. Furthermore, Taylor has presided over an athletics budget that has nearly doubled from the $5 million mark in his first year to near the $10 million threshold entering the 2007-08 season.

A student assistant to the associate athletics director in his undergraduate days at Arizona State, Taylor came to NDSU after a 15-year stint at Navy (1986-2001) as an administrative assistant, assistant ticket manager, ticket manager, assistant athletics director for tickets and operations, and associate athletics director. His tenure at Navy included serving as the commissioner of the five-team Collegiate Sprint Football League that includes Army, Navy, Penn, Princeton and Cornell.

Before his time at Navy, Taylor worked in the ticket office at Southern Methodist (1985-1986). Prior to that, Taylor was in the private restaurant business for five years.

In 1980, Taylor graduated from Arizona State, earning a bachelor's degree in business management. He later earned his master's degree in sports administration from St. Thomas (Fla.) in 1985.

Taylor and his wife, Cathy, are the parents of a daughter, Casey, and a son, Jared.