Terry Donovan “TD” is the Deputy Director of Athletics/Administration & Engagement and serves as the Chief Financial Officer. Along with Director of Athletics Terry Mohajir, Donovan is an officer of the UCF Athletics Association Board of Directors, serving as treasurer. TD joined the UCF athletics staff in January 2022.
In his role, Donovan has oversight of internal and external affairs for the department directly managing the areas of business and finance, human resources, risk management and information technology while also serving as a board officer to external constituents. He provides strategic direction for expenses and revenue for the Knights’ athletics department while engaged in leadership of external revenue generation including the Multi-Media Rights partnership and fundraising.
He came to UCF following three and a half years as Director of Athletics at California State University, Stanislaus (in Turlock, California). At Stan State, Donovan engineered many record-breaking achievements for Warrior Athletics. During his tenure, a record number of student-athletes achieved presidential honors for academic success including the highest cumulative GPA in the history of the department. Competitively, Stan State achieved its highest ever Learfield cup ranking including several conference championships. In revenue generation, Donovan broke fundraising records year after year including generating the most money ever for student-athlete scholarships during Stan State’s premier fundraising event dubbed the Warrior Athletics Crab Feed. Athletics launched the institution’s first virtual fundraising campaign during the pandemic and completed a seven-figure philanthropic campaign for athletics’ scholarships.
Facility upgrades became an immediate priority at Stan State including expanding and remodeling the Athletics Academic Center, adding an HD video board to Fitzpatrick Arena, renovating the softball locker-room, resurfacing the women’s tennis courts, installing new baseball batting cages, and refurbishing the student-athlete lounge area. Donovan secured the university’s first all sports multi-year apparel partnership with Nike to provide elite equipment for student-athletes.
Prior to becoming the Director of Athletics at California State University Stanislaus, Donovan served as Fresno State's Senior Associate Athletics Director/CFO where he was the sport supervisor for football and lead the search to hire two-time Mountain West Conference, bowl champion, and MWC Coach of the Year Jeff Tedford. In 2017 the Bulldogs became only the second team in NCAA Division I history to go from double-digit losses in one season to double-digit wins the next. Donovan supervised men’s and women’s tennis as well as several administrative units including human resources, financial affairs, equipment room operations.
Donovan brings more than two decades of experience in college athletics administration to UCF, including holding previous senior leadership positions at Syracuse University (2011-15 as Executive Senior Associate AD/CFO), Arizona State University (Assistant AD/Finance and HR) and his alma mater, the University of Nevada (Associate AD/Finance).
Donovan was nominated to serve on several conference and national committees including the NCAA Men’s Basketball Rules Committee, the NCAA Resource Allocation Working Group for Autonomy Five, NCAA Regional Advisory Committee for Men’s Golf and various committees in the California Collegiate Athletic Association. He has been a member of the Collegiate Athletic Business Management Association for nearly two decades and was a guest presenter at the 2006 National Association of Collegiate Women Athletics Administrators (now Women Leaders in College Sports) convention in Denver. Donovan has also served on several committees in the Big East and Atlantic Coast conferences.
He began his intercollegiate athletics career in 2000 as a sales and promotions representative at Nevada and four years later was promoted to Assistant Athletics Director. He was focused on revenue generation for ticket sales, philanthropic gifts, and corporate partnerships. He also has administrative experience in independent minor league baseball as an Assistant General Manager.
Donovan has participated in several national leadership development programs, including the D1A Athletic Directors Institute in 2010 and 2014, as well as the Collegiate Athletics Leadership Symposium in 2017.
Donovan earned two degrees at Nevada, including an undergraduate degree in business administration in 1997 and an MBA in 2003. He is currently an adjunct professor in the University of Nevada’s Executive Certificate Sports Management program teaching a graduate program course titled “Revenue Generation and Fiscal Sustainability in Sports”.
He and his wife, Brandi, are parents of two sons—Elijah and Colby.