Bill Chaves is the next Athletics Director at the University of North Dakota, UND President Mark Kennedy announced Saturday, Jan. 13.

Chaves, who becomes UND’s 16^th AD, has been Director of Athletics at Eastern Washington University since 2007 and is a two-time recipient (2012-13 & 2015-16) of national Athletic Director of the Year honors. At UND, Chaves will oversee the University’s 17-sport NCAA Division I athletic program, which currently competes in the Big Sky Conference and the National Collegiate Hockey Conference.

Chaves succeeds Brian Faison, who retired Dec. 31 after nearly a decade of serving as UND Director of Athletics. Faison, who directed UND Athletics through enormous changes, will serve as a Special Advisor to UND Athletics through June 30, 2018.

“I am excited about the impact Bill Chaves’ leadership will have on an already excellent Athletics program here at UND. I want to thank the Search Committee, chaired by Provost Tom DiLorenzo, for its excellent work. Thanks in part to a new law that protected the anonymity of the applicants, we had an excellent pool to choose from. We were pleased with the selection of the four candidates, which made it a challenging decision. We received excellent input from the forums, from those who attended interview sessions, and from the search committee members. All of the candidates fared well, but in the end Bill was a notch ahead of the other candidates,” said Kennedy.

“I would like to thank President Kennedy and the Search Committee for this tremendous opportunity. I am deeply honored to have been selected to serve as UND’s next Athletics Director. My family and I are excited to become active members of the UND family and the Grand Forks community, both of which we have heard so much about. Together, I am confident we will continue UND’s tradition of academic and athletic excellence,” said Chaves.