The University of Memphis announced the hire of Ed Scott from Virginia as senior vice president and athletic director on Wednesday.

Scott's formal introductory press conference is set for Friday.

The 44-year-old Scott's hire came just more than two months after the departure of Laird Veatch, who was named athletic director at Missouri on April 23 after four-plus years leading the Tigers' athletic department.

“The University of Memphis is a destination for me, and it has been on my radar for some time,” Scott said in a prepared statement. “With exceptional student-athletes, coaches and staff that have the backing of a proud and motivated city, the opportunity is here to accomplish great things as we continue forward in a new era of intercollegiate athletics."

Scott, a native of Kingston, N.Y., was previously deputy athletic director at Virginia. He is the eighth athletic director in school history, the third since 2012, and the first Black AD at Memphis.

Scott was part of a candidate pool that included Memphis' interim AD and deputy AD Jeff Crane, Tennessee deputy AD Ryan Alpert, Buffalo AD Mark Alnutt and Kansas State Alumni Association president and CEO Adam Walker.

Scott has worked at Virginia since 2022. Among his duties for the Cavaliers' athletic department, Scott oversees sports medicine, strength and conditioning, nutrition, sport psychology, diversity, equity and inclusion, men’s basketball, baseball, swimming & diving, track & field and cross country and assists in football oversight, serving as a special advisor to the head football coach.

Before his time at Virginia, he was the vice president and athletic director at Morgan State for five years, where he is credited with securing the largest single donation ($2.7 million) in that institution's history, which was put toward the reinstatement of wrestling at Morgan State. It is believed to also be the largest single donation in HBCU athletics history.

He has also spent time at George Washington, Binghamton, Louisville and Albany (Scott's alma mater).

“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Scott and his family to Memphis,” university president Bill Hardgrave said in a press release. “Our goal in this extensive search was to find a forward-thinking, transformative leader with the vision to help us achieve the full potential of Tiger athletics. While there were many exceptional candidates, we found that leader in Dr. Scott. We are fortunate to have him join the Tiger family, and we look forward to continuing toward our promising future in athletics under his guidance.”

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Hardgrave worked in concert with Parker Executive Search (the same firm that was involved when the university hired Hardgrave in 2021) and a six-person advisory committee that consisted of Dave North, chair of the Athletics Committee, Board of Trustees and executive chairman of Sedgwick; Lynda Black, Faculty Athletics Representative for the UofM and professor at the UofM Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law; Michael Cook, Chair of the UofM’s Campaign Committee and founder and chairman of SouthernSun Asset Management; Willie Gregory, director of global community impact at Nike Inc.; Richard Smith, president and CEO, Airline and International at FedEx; and Rick Spell, President of the Auxiliary Services Foundation and president of Spell Restaurant Group.

“When we started this search, I said we were looking for an innovative, bold leader who will bring our athletic program into the next era, and Ed Scott is that leader,” North said in a press release.

Reach sports writer Jason Munz at jason.munz@commercialappeal.com or follow him @munzly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis hires Virginia's Ed Scott as athletic director