Reed-Francois to earn $800,000 annually as Missouri AD

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The transfer of the University of Missouri’s athletic director leadership from Jim Sterk to Desiree Reed-Francois is complete, after the UM System Board of Curators voted in unanimous fashion to approve the contract offered to Reed-Francois, who left UNLV for the same position in Columbia last weekend.

The contract terms for the 49-year old Reed-Francois is for six years, paying $800,000 per year.  The base salary of $550,000 will be added upon with $250,000 earned from doing university related functions that include items like speaking appearances, marketing events, and radio and TV show interviews.

Reed-Francois, the first female athletic director in the history of the University of Missouri, met with the media in Columbia on Wednesday morning: 

From the introduction, a focus of competing for championships throughout Mizzou athletics, not only in the SEC, but on the national stage, was evident.  MU Board of Curators Chairman Darryl Chatman saying, “Each sport has their sights set on a national championship!  We are poised for that success with director Reed-Francois.”

Reed-Francois is one of just two female athletic directors in the Southeastern Conference, a group of 14 schools spanning from Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina on the east coast, to Missouri, Arkansas, and, by 2025, Texas and Oklahoma, in the southern Plains.  The other female AD is Candice Storey-Lee, taking that position last year at the only private school in the conference, Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

Photo credit – University of Missouri Athletics / Columbia, MO