Patrick Guillen pointed to his background of fundraising and building relationships in his pitch for the vacant UH-Hilo athletic director’s job on Tuesday.
The former Cal State Dominguez Hills AD spent the first 10-minute part of his presentation talking about his childhood of humble beginnings, and how it shaped his managerial style, which is a quote from his mom, “If you want to be a great leader, you need to be a servant of all.”
Guillen was born in Torrance, Calif., and lost his father when he was 2 years old. His mom was a minister for 33 years and a welder by trade. She died 11 years ago from cancer. At 12 years old, a business owner named Walter Yamasaki became a father figure, and Guillen remains close to the family.
He graduated with a degree in management and marketing from Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, Calif., and joked that he knows how to ask people for money.
Unlike the other candidate, Joshua Doody, the Notre Dame de Namur AD, Guillen talked about the importance of the aloha spirit, and added that he’s been coming to the islands since 1985.
“I want to build a foundation of trust and respect. I want to come in with humility and respect, and reach out to the community and become somebody people can trust,” he said. “The aloha spirit is unique and you won’t find it on the mainland or anywhere else. It’s all about relationships. It’s really the driving force for everything and anything you do. And you’re not building relationships to get something.”
On Nov. 22, 2014, UHH chancellor Donald Straney wrote in a guest column that he was “looking forward to hiring someone who can work effectively with athletes, coaches and the community.”
Straney also made a plea to the community asking for help with sponsorships, raising scholarship funds or attending games.
UHH has a budget of $2.6 million for 12 sports and is one of two public schools in the Pacific West Conference and the least funded, a situation Guillen noted that mirrors his time at Cal State Dominguez Hills.
Guillen said the school’s endowment for athletics increased from $17,000 to $600,000 during his nine years, helped by scholarship special events and a $250,000 donation from local automakers Honda and Toyota.
If he were hired, in his first 30 days Guillen said he would meet with corporate partners, donors who give big and small amounts and alumni who have disconnected from UHH.
“To be honest, people give money to a person not a building,” Guillen said.
Though he was in the California Collegiate Athletic Association, Guillen had a good grasp on the financial big-picture at UHH. He said the Vulcans would need to raise at least $600,000 to be competitive in the PacWest, where the median school has a budget between $3.4 to $3.6 million.
Like Doody who expressed shock that UHH didn’t have a basketball summer camp (a longtime local connection between the school and community under Jimmy Yagi), Guillen was surprised that the Vulcans don’t have a mandatory study hall.
Guillen said he suspended an All-American soccer player and two others for not attending study hall, and after they sat on a bench while the Toros practiced that lack of attendance didn’t happen again.
One of the questions from the small gathering was how would he gain the community’s trust?
“By being myself. What you see is what you get,” Guillen said. “You have to go out in the community and earn that trust.”
UHH has not put a deadline on when it will hire and officially release the name of the next AD. Former UHH AD Dexter Irvin’s last day on the job was Dec. 31, 2013 — nearly 18 months ago.