Tom Kleinlein Bio

Tom Kleinlein became the Director of Athletics for Georgia Southern University on November 12, 2012. He will oversee 15 men’s and women’s Division I athletic teams at Georgia Southern.

Kleinlein comes to Georgia Southern from Kent State where he became Deputy Athletic Director in September 2011 after serving as the Golden Flashes’ Executive Associate Athletic Director since 2010. Kleinlein served as the primary advisor and liaison to the director of athletics while overseeing the strategic planning and operations for Kent State’s Intercollegiate Athletics Department.

He managed Kent State’s revenue generation component and coordinated the department’s efforts with Institutional Advancement, Enrollment Management and Student Affairs and served as the direct sport supervisor for football along with men’s and women’s basketball while directing many of the day-to-day operations of the department.

During his time at Kent State, Kleinlein negotiated a five-year multi-media agreement with Clear Channel Media & iHeartRadio as well as an all sport apparel deal with Nike that included the first ever team concept shop in the Kent State University Bookstore. In only his first season with the Golden Flashes, he developed and implemented marketing plans that saw a 200% increase in football attendance in 2010 and an increase in basketball ticket revenue for the 2011-12 season. Kleinlein was also part of the implementation team for a 10 year, $42.5 million athletic facility master plan for Kent State.

Prior to his arrival in Kent, Kleinlein was the Associate Athletic Director for Football at Arizona State University from 2005-10. In that role, he oversaw the strategic planning, budget, personnel, scheduling, team travel, facilities, student-athlete welfare and campus and alumni relations. Before his stint in Tempe, Kleinlein served as the Assistant Athletic Director for Football Operations at Rutgers University in Piscataway, N.J. from 2003-05, overseeing all aspects of a $6.1 million budget. Prior to that, he spent nearly four-and-a-half years at his alma mater, joining the Wake Forest University staff in 1998 as an academic counselor, before being named Assistant Director of Football Operations in 2002.

A four-year letter winner on the Demon Deacons’ offensive line from 1989-92, Kleinlein earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Wake Forest (1998), and a master’s in education curriculum and instruction from Arizona State (2008).

Originally from Inwood, N.Y., Kleinlein and his wife, Tara, have two sons – Austin and Mason.

Category: Athletics

Published on Sunday, 31 December 1899 19:00