John Hartwell, the Senior Executive Associate Athletics Director and Chief Operating Officer of the UMAA - the fundraising wing of the athletics department, for those of you out of the loop - has been named the incoming Director of Intercollegiate Athletics at Troy University, per the Montgomery Advisor.
Per John's official Ole Miss bio:
Hartwell serves as the Treasurer and Chief Operating Officer of the UMAA Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) organization that generates over $17M annually for Athletics through priority seating and major gifts. He has day-to-day oversight of Football, Men's Basketball and Baseball, along with sport oversight of Men's and Women's Track and Cross Country and Softball. He also oversees the business office, the ticket office, the equipment room, merchandise sales, concessions and football scheduling.
Suffice it to say that John has been an invaluable member of the Ole Miss athletics department for the past nine years. Hartwell's experience overseeing the ticket office, merchandise sales, and fundraising efforts at Ole Miss will be both difficult to replace and a tremendous asset to him in his new endeavors.
This marks the second senior athletics department official at Ole Miss to earn an athletics director gig, as Danny White of UMAA left Ole Miss a few months ago to become the AD at Buffalo. If there's any sort of silver lining to be found in this, it's that Ole Miss has made hires who were themselves good enough to significantly advance their careers through their efforts in Rebel athletics.
Best of luck to John Hartwell and to Ross Bjork in finding a more-than-suitable replacement.