On Sunday, Missouri announced that Desiree Reed-Francois would replace Jim Sterk as athletics director. Tuesday, her six-year contract was approved by the Board of Curators, making the hire official. The final formality came Wednesday morning, when Reed-Francois was officially introduced to Missouri fans with a press conference at the Commons Club at Faurot Field.

Below is a full transcript of what Reed-Francois, UM System President Mun Choi and Board of Curators Chairman Darryl Chatman had to say.

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"Great to see everyone here today. As you know, this University means so much to me and so does it athletic program. For the past few years, we have seen bold and transformative leadership across the University system. This week, we have taken another incredible step forward with the hiring of our new athletic director, Desiree Reed-Francois.

At Mizzou, we have high expectations for our student-athletes to perform in the classroom, as well on the respective fields, courts, tracks, courses, mats and in the pool. Each sport has their sights set on the national championship. We are poised for that success with Director Reed-Francois. Curator (Jeff) Layman, who served as chair of the search committed, describes her as 'tough, dynamic and an innovative leader who can help build on our successes and position us to regularly compete at the top of the SEC and beyond.' I couldn't agree more. As a former student-athlete, a proud Mizzou graduate and the Chairman of the University Board of Curators, I am very excited about the future and direction of our programs under Director Reed-Francois' leadership. Congratulations to the entire Mizzou family: Our student-athletes, our University, our fans and supporters. We're building great things together. Thank you all for being here."

"August 11th, remember that day. Because that is the day, today, where we're going to begin that new era. Let me the first, also, from the administration, to welcome the Francois family to Columbia. You're going to love it here. It's a great town with people that truly believe in inclusion and making people feel welcome. So welcome to Columbia.

Now, prior to the search, we met with about 100 people to ask what are we seeking in the next athletics director. What we heard was that the key attributes should include someone who's dynamic, fearless, person with high integrity who's deeply compassionate and innovative. And someone who gets up at 4 o'clock each day with the hunger to make Mizzou better. And that person is gonna expect the same from every single individual that works at the University, that works at Mizzou athletics, from student interns all the way to our head coaches.

I want to thank Curator Layman and the entire search advisory committee because they did their job. They found that true person who is the best person for the job, period. And we're so happy to have you here. So thank you.

There are many people who work in leadership that talk about going from good to great and that word has been used so often that I believe it's lost its essence. So today, I'm going to throw down the gauntlet. We're not going from good to great. Today, we're going to go from good to becoming champions, the very best. And with the right leadership, the right vision and the investment, we can get there. But that commitment to become the very best requires alignment and investment. The Board of Curators recognized this when we were challenged by our peers regarding our research and academic success and they knew for us to compete, for our faculty to compete, that they needed the best resources. And that building that's being completed by October, the NextGen building, is the first of many investments like that. In the same way, for athletics, we are gonna develop that strategic vision together with the entire staff that's led by our new director. And we will make investments so that we can achieve the excellence that we expect because we need to develop that championship culture not only at Mizzou, but for the entire state of Missouri. And she is the person to do it.

So, yes, she has the vision, the experience and the tough-mindedness that we need. She's going to be making some deep but necessary changes. So business as usual goes out the window with our new athletics director. She's going to bring that culture of winning back to Mizzou and we deserve it in the state of Missouri and at this great institution. So without further adieu, let's welcome in the next exciting championship driven era of Mizzou athletics. It's my great pleasure to introduce our new athletics director, Desiree Reed-Francois.

"Good morning. I should actually just start with, challenge accepted. So thank you.

Good morning to all of you and thank you so much, President Choi. Thank you for your faith and really your support and this incredible opportunity. I cannot wait to partner with you, so thank you.

I also want to express my sincere appreciation to the Board of Curators, to Chairman Chatman, to Curator Layman who can't be here with us today, but my goodness, he was inspirational in our search process and to the entire search committee and for all of your professionalism, for all of your passion and for all of your belief, not only in me, but what we can accomplish together. I am so fired up.

I would also be remiss if I did not thank the wonderful people at UNLV: The student-athletes, the staff, the coaches, the leaders and everyone and all of our supporters at UNLV and the Nevada system of higher education, where working side by side we were able to enhance the student-athlete experience and elevate the entire athletics program. Under President Whitfield's leadership, I am confident that UNLV is on an incredible trajectory towards excellence in every aspect of the institution.

Now I am not standing here today leading one of the nation's best athletic departments without the support of my family, my friends and my mentors over my life. With us today is my husband, Josh, my son Jackson, who not only have supported me in my career, but who bring joy to my life. I also have my extended Francois family and I'm so proud to have you all here, so thank you. My mother passed away last year, but I know that she and my dad, back at home in California, I know they know how much they've meant to me. To my mentors, Whit Babcock and Debbie Yow, thank you for setting an example of leadership and integrity.

My younger brother, Roman, he can't be here today, as he's back in California. However, I suspect that he's watching this press conference. I'm assuming that we're streaming it and my brother personifies everything; he personifies perseverance and determination and it's actually because of him that I'm in college athletics and I got into college athletics to begin with. You see, on September 10 of 1994, my brother broke his neck playing college football and became a quadriplegic. Watching him day in and day out trying to achieve the impossible, struggling to accomplish the simplest tasks that we all take for granted, inspires me. His original promise was to play football. However, now, his future is still incredibly bright. It's just bright in other ways. Watching Roman, he inspires me and he's the reason why I do what I do. I'm inspired to help others achieve those dreams and that's the reason why we're here. I am focused on the student-athlete and I want them to have the incredible wholistic experience that my brother never did.

Earlier this morning, I had the opportunity to meet with our student-athlete advisory council executive team and I was blown away. These are some passionate and talented and committed student-athletes. I met with the football team yesterday as well and I am inspired by the perseverance and the resilience and the determination that they bring. I cannot wait to meet all of our student-athletes.

Our student-athletes will always be at the forefront of what we do. They'll be at the forefront of our decision making processes and they deserve an athletic department with a championship culture that President Choi spoke about. We want everyone to give their absolute best every single day. As a department, we want to graduate leaders. We want to graduate leaders, though, with a meaningful career path. We're going to relentlessly compete. And we're going win SEC championships. We're going to serve as a point of pride and unity for our entire global Mizzou community. Now championship culture requires a universal commitment to daily excellence. We will be known for our work ethic, our innovative spirit and our team mindset. Whether it's hosting a recruiting visit, greeting guests at games, being a great campus partner, excellence is the expectation. Our coaches have scoreboards that provide them with daily accountability in wins and losses, but every member of our athletic department, they also have a scoreboard. And we're going to hold ourselves to high standards of accountability that we should expect at Missouri. And that begins with me. I will never ask more of anyone else than I would ask of myself. And when I'm all in, I'm all in and together with our students, our coaches, our staff, our alumni, our donors and our campus leaders, we're going to create a world class experience that attracts the best and brightest and that allows our students to better themselves and bring home championships to Columbia.

To our incredible Tiger community in Missouri, around the country, around the world, my family and I, we cannot wait to meet you. I will have a lot of listening and learning to do in the days ahead, but I can promise you that we will have an athletic department that you can be proud of day in and day out. We will keep what has worked and innovate for the future. We compete in the best conference in the country and we should regularly compete for SEC championships which will put us in the hunt for national championships. But ultimately, I know this is the Show-Me State and I know that our actions and our results will speak louder than my words. But I know this league and I know we can do this. We can be one of the nation's best in everything. Everything that we do will reflect this.

Missouri is an incredible university with visionary and aligned leadership. We have supporters that truly care and passionately want us to win, but win with integrity and win with sportsmanship. We're going to win with dignity. We have a dynamic group of coaches and staff that care very deeply about the institution and our student-athletes and we have a collective vision for excellence. We have a storied tradition to which we owe so much to those in this room that have helped build it. Together we will accomplish unprecedented achievements at Missouri. I am so humbled and I am so honored to be the steward of the Tigers' athletic program and I cannot wait to get started. So thank you very much for having me."

When you analyzed this job and the position that Missouri is in, what did you consider the biggest challenges in both the short and long term?

Reed-Francois: “I have the privilege of being in the people business. The first thing I noticed — we actually came to campus in June. But what I saw was actually opportunity. And I saw this AAU institution, we’re the only Power Five school in the entire state. There's 114 counties here. And I want to get to know people. So I saw this incredible opportunity. We have great coaches, great staff, and I saw really just phenomenal opportunities to really go and make our mark in the Southeastern Conference. This is the best conference in the entire country, and you know what, we deserve to be here, and we’re going to go compete for everything. So I saw more opportunities, as opposed to challenges, but first priority is I want to get to know our people. I want to find out about us. I want to get to know our student athletes and I want to get to know our global Mizzou community.”

From the outside this seemed to come together pretty quickly. Can you take us through the process of when you first kind of heard from Missouri until Sunday night when you took the job?

Reed-Francois: “I’ll defer the search process to the president, but you’re right, it’s been a whirlwind, that I can tell you.”

Choi: “The search process was scheduled to be about four weeks, but we always said from the beginning, if we find the right person, we're going to end the search and make the hire. And that's what we did. And it was also very important, we have a little bit of rivalry with Tennessee. They did it in two weeks, we did in the 13 days.

Reed-Francois: “I told you, we’re going to compete for everything.”

What has to happen to build programs that win consistently?

Reed-Francois: “Championship culture. We have to have a championship culture, because it's not just a coach that drives winning, it's all of us. So we have to all be all in. And like I said, I'd like our athletic department to be known to be the hardest working athletic department in the entire conference. I want us to be the most innovative athletic department. And team. We're in a service business, and we have the privilege of serving this great community and our student athletes, our constituents. And so we're going to be hard-working, innovative and team oriented, and when we get that culture running, that's a whole part of the process, the wins are going to come. And we're going to be right there partnering with our coaches to make sure they have the resources they need to be successful. We're gonna recruit fine student-athletes who are the best and the brightest, that are going to represent this great university and this great community so incredibly well. And, you know, when you put that foundation and you put that culture, our habits, and we have those habits and we're holding one another accountable, the results will come.”

You mentioned your mentors, can you share some of the wisdom they passed down to you and why you’re so important to you?

Reed-Francois: “Certainly. My first mentors were my parents. My mother taught me to treat people with respect. But also, don't say it, Desireee, you go prove it. You go show it and you outwork everyone, and let your results speak for themselves. And my dad taught me the love of learning. I have a grandfather who's 98 and he speaks 23 languages. Granddad reads and he plays tennis every single day. He's amazing. And when I tried to explain what my job is to him — anyway, that's a whole other story. Sorry, I went off on a tangent. But my grandfather, he taught us just to love and embrace learning, and I always want to try and get better. There's been mentors, there's been so many mentors in my life, but it started with my family. From, I had the good fortune of working at the university — well, I don’t know if I should say good fortune anymore, since they’re our rivals, University of Tennessee, but at the time it was a very good fortune. So coach (Pat) Summit was a mentor, and coach Summit taught me the importance of alignment. I asked her why, how does she win all these championships? And obviously recruiting, but also the alignment. You have to have alignment with your board, with your president, with our coaches, with our student-athletes. We all have to be in it together. And then coach (Frank) Beamer. Coach Beamer taught me the importance of team and service and treating people with respect. And part of treating people with respect is also holding them accountable. So I've had incredible mentors. And then Bill Walsh. Coach Walsh, when I was first coming out of law school and I was at San Jose State University, he was a San Jose State alum, and he taught me the importance of an attention to detail. So I've had the privilege of having incredible mentors. I mentioned Whit Babcock, who worked here, and he taught me the importance of building an inclusive team, and then Debbie Yow. Debbie Yow is, she taught me the importance of measurables. If you aren't going to measure it, you're not going to do it.”

I know you and Cuonzo Martin have a relationship from your time at Tennessee, so what is your relationship like with Cuonzo and how good is it to get to work with him again?

Reed-Francois: “Yes, Cuonzo and Roberta, we've known them for about a decade, and you know, I was on the hiring team that helped bring coach Martin to the University of Tennessee. And we had all these metrics, and all these analytics. But when my boss, Mike Hamilton, asked me for my opinion, I said, you know, Cuonzo Martin is someone I would want my son to play for. And then fast forward a decade — and, you know, our student-athletes are someone's sons and daughters, right? And I have a son, and when I was thinking about Jackson and we were talking about his future, Cuonzo is someone who I would want my son to play for. And I believe so much in the University of Missouri that I'm giving you my only son. I'm giving us our only son. But yeah, coach Martin and Roberta, they're very good family friends of ours, we’re really proud to be here alongside them.”

With your sports law background, how do you think that can be applied to name, image and likeness and some of the changes we have seen in the past couple months?

Reed-Francois: “So, lawyers, we can’t cure cancer, we can't really do very much. But a couple of things that we do is that we issue spot. So we're always looking for that opportunity. We're always looking for kind of where that next — we like to think that we're good problem solvers. Some may say that we know how to communicate — some may say that, no, we don't really know how to communicate, and I'm sure there's so many lawyer jokes that we can insert right here. But in terms of name, image and likeness, with the background that I have and the training that I have, we've been able to just really look at a way that we can competitively use this to our advantage. And so I'm looking forward to learning about the program here at Mizzou and seeing how we can take that foundation and continue to make that an advantage for us. I think anytime that we can give student-athletes more opportunities, that's what we're going to do.”

As a female stepping into this role and as a Hispanic female stepping into this role, what does that say about athletics programs nowadays and also mentoring young women who are looking up to you and looking to one day step into a role like this?

Reed-Francois: “So I look at my niece, and I have two other nieces, and I look at Sarah, that I met this morning, one of our swimmers. And I'm so looking forward to the day that when my niece, or when Sarah, when they want to be an athletic director or a CEO, I'm looking forward to that day when no one has to ask me that question. I understand the importance of context. And I understand my responsibility. I have a responsibility to do great work because I want to serve the University of Missouri, but I also want to keep that door open. And I want to keep that door open so that the incredibly talented people, regardless of their gender, regardless of their ethnicity, where they come from — and that's what I love about college athletics, right? You build a team, and that’s what I love. If you can play, it doesn't matter where you come from. If you can play, you can perform, if you're going to outwork and you're going to compete, we've got a spot for you. So I really appreciate that question and I understand the importance of context.”

President Choi mentioned your vision and your innovation. I know you haven’t had a ton of time to think about this department, but was wondering if you could offer any specifics for how you might do things differently?

Reed-Francois: “I have a lot of listening and learning to do first. So, before I come in and say this is how we're going to do it, I want to find out what it is, how we're doing it now. And I want to learn from the great people here, and then we're going to, like I said, we're going to be a department that's going to be defined by our work ethic, by our innovation and by our team spirit. But first I need to listen and learn and get to know folks, and one thing we're going to do right off the top, I met with the all departments, with the whole staff this morning, and we're going to do a squad analysis. I want to hear directly from the folks here, and then we're going to take that and we're going to start defining us. We're going to start defining, really, our brand, who we are, make sure that we're all on the same page. And then, let's figure out ways that we can continue to be innovative and move this forward.”

What are your thoughts on Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC?

Reed-Francois: “Well, I am very glad that the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma have followed Missouri's lead. So I just say welcome. And it just means more.”

You mentioned that you were happy at UNLV. Why take this leap and what is it about Mizzou that drew your interest?

Reed-Francois: “People. And I was very happy at UNLV because of the great people that we had. And we had great momentum, and I'm very proud of the people and the work and the relationships that we had there. They're very special, and I'm very thankful for UNLV. But people drew me here, too. People, opportunity and promise. I see, like I said, I really believe in president Choi’s leadership, I really believe that the alignment is here. This is a special place, and the minute that we walked on campus, you could feel how special Mizzou is. And I just saw, this is a great place. This is an AAU institution; it is the only power five in the entire state. You have great coaches, incredible student athletes. And I just really believed. So I came for the people, and I came for the belief.”

You mentioned both Cuonzo and Whit a couple times. I’m curious what feedback you got from them before you accepted the job or since you have about Missouri.

Reed-Francois: “That it’s a great place. It's a really special place. You know, I've met Eli as well. In June, he gave me a tour of that South endzone project, and it was special. And when I got to know him, his energy is infectious. You can just tell that that he's building something special, and the whole department momentum, I'm excited about that. I'm excited about where we are now, but then also where we're going in the future. So, it's a special place, and it's a special time.”

You mentioned your brother. Can you explain your philosophy on how you will be an advocate for student-athletes here at Mizzou?

Reed-Francois: “Every decision that we make will be in the best interest of our student-athletes. They are the reason why we do what we do. We have an incredibly important responsibility, and one that we have to come to work every day with a grateful heart. Education can transform lives, and athletics is our vehicle. We have to take that responsibility very, very seriously. And I know, as a mother, I know what athletics, and — I wouldn't be sitting here today if it wasn't for education. Some of the best coaches that I've ever met are incredible teachers. And so we're in the education business. I get it, what we do is very high profile, and there's a scoreboard and I embrace the competitive aspect. But also, we're educators.”

You mentioned you had a chance to meet with the football team yesterday, I was just wondering if you had a chance to talk to Eli Drinkwitz about his aspirations for that program.

Reed-Francois: “Absolutely. I’ve met with Eli several times, and he's, like I said, his energy is infectious. And we talked a lot about kind of closing that gap, but then also setting that standard, right? That's so exciting. And so I know his goals and I share those, and I am just excited to provide all those resources so that we can all be successful.”

You mentioned how your brother Roman is an inspiration to you, but I wonder with all of your accomplishments, and particularly this one here, which is such a landmark hiring for the University of Missouri, how you might be an inspiration for him?

Reed-Francois: “I have never had that question. I think he just knows that I love him dearly, and I think he's very appreciative and proud of how much he means to me. And I think, based upon the conversations we have — you know, one thing that we do after football games, like that's our way, football has always been an incredibly important part of our family. I think I'm going to become a Kansas City Chiefs fan. We grew up San Francisco 49ers fans. I mean, it was the 80s in San Francisco, right, that's what you do, Joe Montana, Bill Walsh, the catch, everyone remembers it. But football has been a way that, after every one of my games, no matter what school I’ve been at, that’s what we do. We’ll text and we’ll say, hey, what do you think? Why’d they go Cover Two? So that’s how we communicate. But I don’t know about the inspiration part, I just think that he knows how much I love him.”

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