Keith Gill was named the Sun Belt Conference’s sixth commissioner on March 19, 2019.

Gill is the first African-American to become commissioner of a NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision conference.

Already early in his tenure leading the Sun Belt, Gill has established priorities for the conference based on emphasizing the academic successes and personal development of student-athletes, implementing strategies aimed to boost the league’s competitive success across all sports and expanding the league’s national profile through branding and inclusion initiatives.

A veteran of intercollegiate athletics for nearly 25 years, Gill came to the Sun Belt from the Atlantic 10 Conference where he served as Executive Associate Commissioner.

At the A-10, Gill worked directly with longtime commissioner Bernadette V. McGlade. He served as the primary liaison to the A-10 Men’s Basketball Advancement Committee, which is responsible for identifying initiatives and strategies to ensure A-10 men’s basketball remains a top seven league and increases the number of A-10 at-large teams that annually advance to the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. Gill supported the A-10’s digital and television broadcast strategy and provided regular NCAA governance updates to the A-10 Council of Presidents.

Prior to his time at the A-10, Gill was a director of athletics for 10 years, serving at the University of Richmond for five years and American University for five years.

At Richmond, he was appointed as the A-10’s representative on the NCAA Council and served as the governing body’s Vice Chair. He also was the Co-Chair of the NCAA Ad Hoc Transfer Issues Working Group in 2015. Gill was honored as an Under Armour Athletic Director of the Year by NACDA in 2015.

Under Gill’s watch, Richmond’s athletics programs won 14 conference championships and produced 19 All-Americans.  Additionally, the athletics department also made numerous improvements to its athletics facilities, including a complete renovation of the Spiders’ basketball and multi-purpose arena, the Robins Center.

At American, Gill led the athletics department to unprecedented heights, highlighted by 25 team conference championships, 16 individual conference champions and 25 All-Americans. In Gill’s first two seasons, the men’s basketball team won the Patriot League title, earning the school’s first-ever NCAA Tournament appearances in 2008 and 2009.

More than 250 American student-athletes flourished in the classroom under Gill’s guidance as 16 teams earned a combined grade point average over 3.0 for 23 consecutive semesters. In 2011-12, 121 student-athletes were named to the university’s Dean’s List as the department posted a combined 3.36 GPA.

Prior to his time at American, Gill spent three years at the University of Oklahoma from 2004-07.  In Norman, he oversaw major portions of Sooner athletics, including men’s basketball, women’s soccer and baseball, as well as the supervision of personnel, budgets, facilities, fundraising, student-athlete issues and the selection and evaluation of coaches for those sports. He worked with Director of Athletics Joe Castiglione and senior staff in overseeing the strategic and annual planning process for the department.

Prior to Oklahoma, Gill served two stints at the NCAA national office from 1995-99 and 2000-04. During his second tenure, he was in the role of director of membership services, developing and communicating policies related to Division I intercollegiate athletics, including governance, rules compliance, diversity, gender equity, academic integrity, student-athlete welfare, fiscal integrity, strategic planning, sportsmanship and legislation. Gill oversaw and ensured the effective operation of the athletics certification program and managed a staff of 35 that provided education and guidance to Division I institutions conducting their periodic self-studies. During his first stint at the NCAA office, Gill worked as a membership services representative.

Between his time at the NCAA office, Gill was an Assistant Director of Athletics at Vanderbilt University, working with the director of athletics to implement the annual planning process to help 16 athletics teams achieve their academic and competitive goals. He worked with the National Commodore Club and the major gifts, media relations and marketing staffs and the athletics committee as a part of the Vanderbilt Board of Trustees.

A 1994 graduate of Duke University with a bachelor’s degree in history and sociology, the Orlando, Fla., native was a four-year letterman in football. He received a Master’s Degree from Oklahoma in 2006.