Texas A&M begins search for athletic director
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COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) -- Texas A&M has hired a search firm to help find its next athletic director, a day after Bill Byrne retired from the position.
The school hired Parker Executive Search, a firm that has worked on athletic director searches at dozens of schools including five in the Southeastern Conference, where A&M is moving July 1.
Texas A&M Regent Jim Wilson and Jason Cook, the school's vice president for marketing and communications, will co-chair the search committee.
Nine other people make up the committee, including two professors, softball coach Jo Evans, Adaora Elonu, a former women's basketball player who remains a student, and former football player Terrence Murphy.
School President R. Bowen Loftin says he hopes to have the new athletic director in place when the fall semester begins.