Chris Del Conte
University of Texas Vice President and Athletics Director Chris Del Conte is a proven, well-regarded and nationally recognized athletics administrator who has a long history of leading highly-successful athletic departments. In his second year at UT and 14th year as an athletics director overall, Del Conte has strong ties to the Lone Star State, having spent a dozen years at TCU and Rice before taking over leadership of Texas Athletics on December 9, 2017.
Before coming to Austin, Del Conte served as director of intercollegiate athletics at Texas Christian University for eight years and was nationally recognized for developing winning programs, upgrading facilities, improving the fan experience and helping student-athletes excel on and off the field.
Del Conte was the recipient of a 2015 NACDA Under Armour AD of the Year Award and the 2010 Bobby Dodd Division I-A Athletic Director’s Award. In February 2015, he was named to the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship Committee.
During his tenure as Athletics Director at Rice (2006-09), Del Conte had responsibility for 16 intercollegiate programs, 350 student-athletes, along with coaches and staff. Del Conte also designed, developed and managed the Rice Vision for the Second Century Campaign, which raised over $90 million.
Prior to Rice, Del Conte was the senior associate athletics director for external operations and sports programs at the University of Arizona (2000-06). In that role, Del Conte had responsibility for the planning, management and oversight of the day-to-day operation for the department of intercollegiate athletics.
Del Conte also served as an assistant athletics director for external operations at both Washington State (1998-99) and Cal Poly (1994-98).
Del Conte received a bachelor of arts degree in sociology from UC Santa Barbara, where he was a track and field student-athlete, and a master’s degree in education, administration and supervision from Washington State.
Del Conte is married to Dr. Robin Ward and has two daughters, Sienna and Sophia.
