Vanderbilt athletics director: Colleagues say Malcolm Turner makes bold plans, not enemies
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Colleagues of new Vanderbilt athletics director Malcolm Turner say he’s a down-to-earth intellectual, an innovative thinker and just what the university needs.
Turner, the president of the NBA G League, was hired as Vanderbilt AD on Tuesday, and he will start his tenure on Feb. 1. He is advertised as someone who will implement new, bold ideas without making enemies.
“If Vandy doesn’t get what they need in hiring Malcolm, they have no one to blame but themselves,” said NBA G League vice president Tommy Smith, a Donelson native. “You don’t get the combination of human engineering, education, common sense and intelligence in many people. He’s got ’em all.”
Turner has a Vanderbilt-type pedigree. He has two degrees from Harvard, membership in the New York State Bar and a successful corporate career. But current and former colleagues point to his down-to-earth demeanor as much as his accomplishments.
“I have always admired Malcolm and how he treats people,” said Gary Stevenson, Turner’s former boss at OnSport, a sports and entertainment consulting firm. “It’s not about accomplishments for him; it’s about having purpose in everything he does.”
What Turner can do for Vanderbilt
Turner’s expertise has come in executing business plans, marketing sports and promoting brands. He worked 15 years in professional sports consulting firms, building a name for himself among the NBA, WNBA, MLB, NFL, PGA and NASCAR.
The Sports Business Journal tabbed him a top “Forty Under 40,” in the industry in 2007. And NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum credits Turner as leading the massive expansion of the developmental G League, which included the addition of 10 new teams, enlarged league staff and an entitlement sponsorship by Gatorade.
“I don’t think Vanderbilt fans have anything to worry about,” Tatum said. “Malcolm is the kind of leader who brings with him unique experiences from across sports business, and he can tap into those career learnings to bring about real change at an organization.”
Turner was integral in landing the Gatorade sponsorship deal. “He didn’t just have a hand in it,” Smith said. “He had both hands and both feet in it.”
Turner’s skill set suggests Vanderbilt could explore corporate sponsorships more aggressively. That’s an idea that Turner’s predecessor, Vanderbilt AD David Williams, pondered in 2016 when he failed to raise funds for a football stadium renovation.
Stadium plan was discussed during interview process
Fundraising will be among Turner’s major tasks, especially in renovating Vanderbilt Stadium, which has not undergone a major facelift since 1981. During that period, every other SEC stadium has been renovated multiple times, including at least once in the past 12 years.
On Tuesday, Turner said, “I’ve had no problem creating revenue throughout my career, and I look forward to applying similar and new approaches with this new opportunity at Vanderbilt.”
Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos said he had a “good give-and-take” discussion with Turner during the interview process about his plans for raising funds and updating athletic facilities.
Fundraising hasn't been easy at Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt’s recent past suggests Turner could face challenges. In an Aug. 2 report, multiple sources told The Tennessean university administrators undercut efforts to raise funds for a stadium project to focus on building other campus structures. Athletics fundraisers were prohibited from soliciting certain donors already targeted by university fundraisers in a $600 million capital campaign.
Vanderbilt spokesmen declined to comment on that accusation. But two weeks later, the university released a statement, saying it would put forth “efforts to raise funds” for athletic facilities.
About three weeks after that statement, Williams abruptly announced his resignation. He began the press conference by apologizing for the timing because it came on Sept. 11 and alongside the football press conference for Vanderbilt’s much-anticipated game against Notre Dame.
“I want to apologize to a certain degree that my statement of leaving actually came out on a bad day, I think,” Williams said in that Sept. 11 press conference. “But the university needed to do it this way.”
Turner’s connection to benefactor John Ingram
Zeppos said Turner surfaced as a top candidate “at the very, very beginning.” But Turner has no college administrative experience, and he said he was “not actively seeking this type of opportunity.”
So why did Turner alter his career path for the Vanderbilt job? He was recommended to Vanderbilt, and Vanderbilt was recommended to him, during the three-month search since Williams’ resignation.
Stevenson, Turner’s boss from 1999-2010, is now president of Major League Soccer business ventures. He’s worked closely with businessman John Ingram, the Vanderbilt Board of Trust athletics committee chair and owner of Nashville’s MLS expansion franchise.
Stevenson, who has regularly traveled to Nashville for MLS events, said Ingram called him “early in the process” about Turner.
“I gave (Ingram) a big thumbs-up and an A-plus recommendation on Malcolm,” Stevenson said. “I think Malcolm sees Vanderbilt as a place that’s ready to make changes and a place that looked for someone to be on the forefront of those changes.
“That appealed to Malcolm. He has always made his decisions based on purpose and being forward-thinking, and he sees a purpose at Vanderbilt.”
Vanderbilt was sold to Turner by Nashville resident
Even before Ingram’s conversation with Stevenson, Turner had already asked Smith about Vanderbilt and the potential of the Nashville market. Smith, a former basketball coach at MTSU and Cumberland University, lives in Donelson and works in New York in the NBA office.
“I told him that Vanderbilt is the best institution academically in the SEC, that it’s in the best town in the SEC with the best people in the SEC,” Smith said. “I’m a card-carrying member of the (Vanderbilt baseball coach) Tim Corbin fan club, and I knew Malcolm and Tim would get along great.”
Turner started a relationship with his head coaches immediately. Within minutes of Vanderbilt’s announcement of his hiring Tuesday, Turner called Vanderbilt head coaches to introduce himself, and he met with them later that night.
Despite the warm welcome, Turner has never evaluated, hired or fired a coach. But his colleagues said he will hold coaches accountable and adapt quickly to compensate for that lack of experience.
“The coaches will love him because he provides you with resources, he’s not an impatient man and he’s very reasonable,” Smith said. “He takes his job seriously, but he doesn’t take himself seriously. Vandy people will find that Malcolm is a very educated, very intelligent man with a great heart and soul.”
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Reach Adam Sparks at [email protected] and on Twitter @AdamSparks.