Joe Karlgaard will step down as Rice's Athletic Director on Aug. 1, according to an email from University president Reginald DesRoches.

Karlgaard captained significant upgrades to Rice's facilities and rebranded the athletic program in his 10-year tenure as AD. His efforts were rewarded with 30 Conference USA championships among the Owls' athletic teams and an invitation to the American Athletic Conference starting in the 2023-24 academic year. Now, he's decided to embark on a new challenge where he'll take over as CEO of GSV Summit LLC. 

"As director of athletics, recreation and lifetime fitness since the fall of 2013, Joe Karlgaard has led and benefited our athletics programs across several periods of exceptional growth and challenge, including, most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic," DesRoches wrote. "Joe is also a thoughtful, inspiring, empathetic and incredibly decent person. Because of those qualities, he has served as a trusted adviser to our former president, David Leebron, and me.”

Karlgaard stepped into his role in the fall 2013 after first proving himself as a capable athletic director at rigiourous educational institutions with Oberlin College from 2005-11 and senior associate athletics director at Stanford. He introduced the "New Vision for Rice Athletics" five-year plan in 2014 and immediately got to work.

After a renovation of the Reckling Park baseball diamond's playing surface, locker rooms and video boards, Karlgaard secured his signature achievement with the opening $33 million Brian Patterson Sports Performance Center in 2016. The performance center serves as a state-of-the-art training and medical facility for all Rice student athletes. He then introduced his second five-year plan, dubbed "Vision for Victory" in April 2019.

While he won't see it through, he did oversee the first phase of modernization to Rice Stadium, which was completed in fall 2022. The project added eight loge boxes to the east side of the stadium, LED lighting for the concourse and a red brick wall to surround the football field.

DesRoches said the university will appoint interim leadership within the next month and conduct a national search for a new athletics director.