Owls hire Missouri’s White as new AD

After a six-week search, Florida Atlantic has finally found a replacement lead its athletics department.

On Saturday, the school announced it has hired Brian White as the athletics director. White was Missouri’s senior associate athletics director for the last three years. He replaces Pat Chun, who left for Washington mid-January.

“The moment this opportunity arose I knew immediately I wanted to join the team at Florida Atlantic University,” White said in a statement. “From the vision and ambition of the president and the board of trustees to the huge potential of all the school’s athletic programs, these are exciting times to be at FAU.”

White signed State in five-year contract, becoming the sixth full-time athletics director in school history. He is expected to be formally introduced on campus in the coming week.

He takes over an athletics department that is still buzzing from FAU’s best football season. Under coach Lane Kiffin, the Owls went 11-3, won their first Conference USA championship and defeated Akron in the Boca Raton Bowl.

FAU president John Kelly said he expects White to continue the school’s climb.

“I challenged our coaches and our entire athletics department to create top-25 programs capable of competing at the highest level,” Kelly said. “Everyone involved has risen to the challenge and, in bringing Brian White to FAU, we will continue on our exciting journey under his skilled leadership.”

The school also announced Brian Battle, who served as interim athletics director, will return to his previous role of senior associate director of athletics for internal operations.

In White, the Owls get someone who excelled in fundraising during his time at Missouri. He was in charge of several departments, including marketing, tickets sales and strategic communications.

White comes from a family with strong pedigree in college athletics. His father, Kevin, is the vice president and director of athletics at Duke. His brother, Mike, coaches the University of Florida basketball team while another sibling, Danny, is the vice president and director of athletics at Central Florida.

srichardson@sunsentinel .com or Twitter @shandelrich