Jared Benko
Jared Benko was hired in March of 2020 as the leader of the Georgia Southern Athletics Department and began his new role on April 1. Benko, who has more than a decade of progressive leadership experience in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), comes to Statesboro from Mississippi State where he served as Deputy Director of Athletics/Chief Financial Officer for nearly four years (2016-2020).
At MSU, Benko assisted the director of athletics with strategic planning, personnel decisions, and public relations initiatives while also supervising the day-to-day operations of the football program. With the Bulldog football program, he was responsible for scheduling, game day execution, supervision of coaches, strategic planning and social media engagement.
A noted fundraiser with a strong background in revenue generation, Benko secured gifts of $1 million and $500,000 for indoor tennis facility and finalized a five-year, $28.8 million contract extension with adidas. He also created a financing plan and worked closely with the school’s development staff to strategize fundraising $20 million for a $68 million baseball stadium project and had oversight of a combined $105 million operating budget for the Athletic Department and the Bulldog Club.
Benko arrived in Starkville after serving as the assistant athletic director for finance at Auburn, where he was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the business office for two years (2015-16).
Benko spent four years in business operations at Arkansas, including serving as the director of business operations from 2012 to 2015. He was promoted to that role after 16 months as the department’s business manager, which he was hired as in 2011.
Before his time at Arkansas, Benko served as the assistant director of business operations at his alma mater of Georgia from 2008 to 2011.
Benko, from Watkinsville, Georgia, earned a bachelor of science in sports studies from Georgia in 2005 and then a master of public administration in Athens in 2007. He got his start in the athletic business field as an intern at Georgia from 2007 to 2008. He also spent seven years in sports communications at Georgia, including five years as a student and two years as a graduate assistant, while assisting with the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta Braves. Benko and his wife, Sarah, have two sons, Hudson and Cooper.
