Pete Garcia became FIU's Director of Intercollegiate Athletics on October 16, 2006.  Since arriving at FIU, Garcia, 48, 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.

Over the past four years, FIU has continued to increase the number of student-athlete graduates under Garcia's watch. During the 2009-10 school year, FIU graduated 73 student-athletes, the highest number of athletic graduates in the history of the program. In 2009-10, FIU also showed improvement for the third-consecutive year in regards to the NCAA's annual Academic Progress Rate (APR) as four teams (men's cross country, women's golf, women's tennis and volleyball) recorded perfect yearly scores of 1,000 and seven others, including men's basketball, football and baseball 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 and be ready for the outside world. That's the reason we are in the 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 Henry "Turtle" Thomas to take over the baseball team, Beth McClendon, who took over the softball team and was named the Sun Belt Coach of the Year in two of her first three seasons at the helm, Mario Cristobal 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."

In four seasons under Garcia's direction, the FIU Athletic Department has flourished on the field as well. The Panthers have collected eight Sun Belt Titles, seven NCAA Tournament berths and 23 all-Americans. During the 2009-10 year, FIU garnered three conference Coaches of the Year (McClendon, Danjiela Tomic and Thomas Chestnut), 27 all-conference selections, three conference Players of the Year (Ashley McClean - softball, Yarimar Rosa - volleyball, Garrett Wittels - baseball), four conference Freshmen of the Year (Kaitlyn Savage - women's soccer, Jovana Bjelica - volleyball, Brie Rojas - softball, Jabari Henry - baseball) and the Sun Belt Pitcher of the Year in softball (Kasey Barett). 

Garcia also oversaw construction and operation of the university's new on-campus football stadium and the R. Kirk Landon Fieldhouse. The 18,000-seat stadium, with expected future expansion to 45,000, opened on September 20, 2008 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 in the summer of 2009, includes a 14,000-square foot clean-span weight room that is 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, Frank Gore, Ray Lewis, Bryant McKinnie, 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."