Pete Garcia became FIU’s Director of Intercollegiate Athletics on October 10, 2006.  Since arriving at FIU, Garcia, 47, has worked at promoting the FIU athletic program while instilling a commitment of excellence with his coaches, department staff and student-athletes.

Under Garcia, the athletic department has added more advisors, tutors and computers to the academic support program for student-athletes and hired more compliance officers, including the first known APR specialist in the country, to ensure adherence with NCAA rules and regulations.

That investment paid immediate dividends as FIU graduated 59 student-athletes during the 2007-08 academic year, the highest number of athletic graduates in the history of the program. The trend continued in 2009  as FIU Athletics once again showed overall improvement with regards to the fifth-annual Academic Progress Rate (APR) reported by the NCAA. Five teams (women’s cross country, women’s golf, women’s soccer, women’s tennis and women’s softball) recorded perfect yearly scores of 1,000 and 10 others, including men basketball and football, demonstrated noticeable academic improvement.

“Our No. 1 priority is to ensure that all of our student-athletes have the resources and support necessary to graduate, get their degrees and be ready for the outside world. That’s the reason we are in business,” Garcia said.

Upon his hiring, Garcia immediately began evaluating programs and shuffling his coaching staff in an effort to turn FIU’s athletic fortunes. He brought in proven winners like Arizona State assistant Henry “Turtle” Thomas to take over the baseball team, the University of Houston’s Beth McClendon, who took over the softball team and was named the Sun Belt Coach of the Year in her first season at the helm, Mario Cristobal, a former assistant at UM and Rutgers, in football, and most recently, NBA Hall of Fame player, Isiah Thomas, in men’s basketball.

“They all know their games, they are relentless workers and exceptional recruiters,” Garcia said. “That’s the blueprint of everybody we have hired.”

Garcia also oversaw construction and operation of the university’s new on-campus football stadium and fieldhouse. The 18,000-seat stadium, with expected future expansion to 45,000, opened last fall as the only Division I on-campus football stadium south of Orlando in Florida. The adjacent two-story, 50,000-square foot fieldhouse, which opened this summer, includes a 14,000-square foot clean-span weight room that will be used by all FIU student-athletes for their strength and conditioning needs.

While serving his second stint at UM as the senior associate athletic director for external operations in 2005, Garcia supervised the school’s media relations, ticket sales, marketing and corporate sponsorships.

He first worked at Miami from 1990 through 2000, and in 1992, became the football program’s recruiting coordinator. In that position, he was instrumental in recruiting athletes like current NFL veterans Vernon Carey, Andre Johnson, Ray Lewis, Bryant McKinnie, Santana Moss, Clinton Portis, Ed Reed, Jeremy Shockey, Jonathan Vilma and Vince Wilfolk.

In 2001, Garcia joined former Miami head coach Butch Davis with the Cleveland Browns as its director of football development. Two years later, Garcia was promoted to vice president.

Born in Havana, Cuba, Garcia’s family came to Miami in 1967. He graduated from Hialeah High School and the University of Miami before landing a job with the Miami Dolphins in 1989.

Garcia says that directing the Golden Panthers has given him an opportunity to further his career without leaving the community he loves.

“South Florida has been very good to me and what better way to pay it back than establishing another elite sports program that the community can rally behind,” Garcia said. “Our goal is to get our alumni and students excited about this program and ensure that our student-athletes have all the tools to compete at the highest level.”