ISU athletics director Jamie Pollard has already made his presence felt at Iowa State.

Pollard announced a staff reorganization Wednesday, creating a new senior-level position, while promoting Frank Nogel, Bill Smith and Larry Quant to senior associate athletics directors. Together with senior associate athletics director Calli Sanders, the six – including the still-vacant senior-level position – begin to fulfill Pollard’s vision of his role in ISU athletics.

“I need to lead, not manage the department,” Pollard said. “The only way I can do that is to have strong, strong lieutenants. The way to articulate that staff is so everyone knows who those lieutenants are, and that they have clearly defined responsibilities.”

The biggest adjustment is how closely the six work together with Pollard.

“It’s going to be more longer-term, strategic-type issues, rather than day-to-day issues that Bruce [Van De Velde] had us working on,” Quant said.

The three promotions entail the same responsibilities as before, with some added expectations.

Smith is responsible for overseeing the department’s academic and compliance services, and supervises the sports medicine and strength and conditioning units as well as working closely with Pollard to continue to improve the department’s overall academic performance.

“There’s no doubt that Jamie has a strong vision and I’m really excited for this opportunity,” Smith said. “I think we always want to get better, and we’re working toward that, making sure that we have all the systems in place.”

Nogel oversees the department’s revenue generating areas, including development, marketing, promotions and licensing, and will now serve as the primary catalyst for the implementation of Pollard’s external fundraising master plan.

“We’re going to take a hard look at where we’re at and assess some of the things we’re doing and see what we can do better,” Nogel said. “Generating revenue is obviously our No. 1 goal.”

Quant’s responsibilities include supervising the department’s business, personnel, equipment, facility and ticket operations, and will work closely with Pollard in creating a strategic financial plan in an effort to raise the department’s budget, which is one of the lowest in the Big 12.

“Financially, we have some challenges to find additional sources of revenue so we close the gap between some of the other schools in the conference,” Quant said.

Overall, though, it’s the vision of the department that will ultimately improve.

“I think Jamie is going to have much more of an external focus, and that’s why he wanted to create a strong and visible senior staff,” Quant said. “We’re the ones who really will be running the day-to-day things.”

Sanders serves as the primary administrative contact for the women’s basketball program, as well as overseeing all aspects of 11 other intercollegiate sports. She will now work with Pollard in the development of the vision and goals to improve the overall competitiveness of the entire athletic program.

Sanders said she thinks the changes are fairly typical of an athletics organization, and is not worried about the few changes in job descriptions.

“We’ve always worked closely together, and I have great respect for all three of them,” Sanders said of Quant, Smith and Nogel. “They all have great experiences they can bring to the administrative table.”

Pollard said the department is already searching for someone to fill the newly created position, which will assist him in creating and communicating the department’s vision and strategic initiatives. The search to fill the position will be conducted over the next month.

“The purpose of the new position is to carve out a way to really communicate our message from a corporate standpoint,” Pollard said. “It’s really thinking about business in a different way, thinking about it from the standpoint of how a corporation helps communicate their vision, their brand.”

Pollard also said the position does not exist in many athletic departments, and his tenure at the University of Wisconsin helped guide him through the department’s restructuring.

“We created the position at Wisconsin and were probably one of the elite programs that had that position on our senior staff,” he said.

The newly created senior staff will meet as a group once a week, as well as individually with Pollard on a periodic basis.

There are no pay increases associated with the change in titles for Quant, Smith, Nogel and Sanders.

“This is clearly an organizational structure change,” Pollard said. “In our world, those titles mean something to them in terms of how they progress in their careers, but it wasn’t looking to try and change somebody’s compensation. I was trying to make sure that everybody knew who the senior staff was. If they do a great job in these roles, they’ll be rewarded accordingly.”

These changes are the start in Pollard’s vision of what ISU athletics is capable of, he said, and his staff not only recognizes that, but has faith in it.

“He obviously has a very clear vision of where he wants to be,” Sanders said. “I have tremendous faith and trust in that vision, and I think everyone is very confident.”

The opportunity the staff has may be a new one in the ISU athletic department, but the individuals involved have mad it clear they feel it’s a positive one.

“We have a great working relationship,” Smith said. “We know how to work with each other, and how to compliment each other.”

With a new athletics director, no one in the department was sure of what to expect, but the administrative staff has expressed gratitude for the faith Pollard has shown in the staff.

“He’s come in and put a lot of faith and trust in people who are here,” Nogel said. “I’m very appreciative for the opportunity.”

Pollard said he hopes those attributes will send the department ship in the right direction.

“Right now we’re starting out in ground zero,” he said. “I don’t care about the past, I care about the future.”