Zack oversees all external units, including marketing, communications, ticket sales, and ideation as well as partnerships with Beaver Sports Properties, Nike, and the Pac-12 Network. He also serves as the sports supervisor for men's basketball and women's soccer.
Under his leadership, OSU has created the nation's first in-house advertising and creative agency in intercollegiate sports. This innovative approach has increased awareness of the Beavers’ brand across multi-social media platforms and led to the development of new marketing and ticketing programs that resulted in OSU being one of only two Division I programs in 2016-17 to sellout a home game in football, baseball and both men's and women's basketball.
Lassiter also led the successful bid by OSU and its Portland and Corvallis partners to bring five future NCAA Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball and Gymnastics championships to Portland and Corvallis.
At the national level, he is currently a member of the NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Committee and NCAA Women's Basketball Advancement Committee. He has served on the National Association of College Marketing Administrators (NACMA) Board of Directors (2012-16), co-founded the NACMA Veterans Summit and was a member of the Sports Management Institute Class of 2012.
Sports Industry Journey:
Education
Bachelor's Degree | Economics and Political Science | Williamette University
Master's Degree | Sports Administration | University of North Carolina
Career
Assistant Ticket Manager | University of North Carolina
Assistant Ticket Manager | LSU
Assistant Athletic Director - Ticketing and Corporate Sales | University of Utah
Associate Athletic Director - Revenue Generation | University of Utah
Senior Associate Athletic Director - External Operations | University of Central Florida
Deputy Athletics Director for External Operations | Oregon State University
Twitter: @ZackLassiter
LinkedIn: Zack Lassiter
What contributed to you making a transition from working in the ticket office to the revenue generation/external side of things?
A couple of things contributed to it. I was at the right place at the right time. Timing has such a big role in it. In terms of what I did to be ready for those opportunities, I am a very curious person and have always been curious about how an athletic department operates. I was very intentional about wanting to know how everything worked whether it was fundraising, marketing, event management.
Instead of thinking about what that next opportunity would be, I wanted to make sure I crushed the current role I was in. [By crushing the current role you’re in] that gains a trust and a belief in decision makers. If you can be excellent and naturally curious, you’ll do great.
What is the book (or books you’ve given most as a gift) and why or what are one to three books that have greatly influenced your life?
StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath - From a self-awareness standpoint, it's a great book.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni - This book has had a huge impact on my career. Early on in my career, I was all about “How do I get better?” Now that I’m an older guy, my impact is, “How have I helped people on my team get better themselves." How do you create a culture that people want to be a part of? If I have a bad day at the age of 25, it only affects me. If I have a bad day now, it will affect my team because I set the tone as a leader.
Good to Great by Jim Collins.
Heroic leadership by Chris Lowney is a really fascinating book.
The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle.
If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere in the world with anything on it – and you could get a message out to millions or billions – what would it say and why?
It would be “Love God and love others.”
Going from being in a specialist role to a generalist role.
I think it’s as much about how you can help others be great at what they do than to be great yourself.
Was there a specific point in your career where you started handling tasks and projects that were outside of your comfort zone? If so, what was that specific point and how did you handle feeling overwhelmed?
The greatest environment for growth is when you have an opportunity to be excited about something, but scared to death to do it. There were a lot of moments where I was in that sweet spot of being ready for a new challenge or being a little scared or nervous about handling the responsibility. It’s fight or flight. Either you figure it out or play it safe. At Utah my boss, Chris Hill, gave me an opportunity to do something I haven’t done before. If you find the right people to help you and more times than not you have to believe in yourself and you have to be okay to fail.
What tangible skills and qualities should young people have or develop in order to be successful?
I think an incredibly important ingredient [for success] is self-awareness. Do you truly know who you are? Early on [in my career] I would read a lot of books. When it started clicking for me, I knew who I was and who I wasn't.
How can I lead with what I know and do well and how can I lead with things I know I don’t do well? What was helpful for me and how I matured, was being in different environments. I was constantly comfortable being uncomfortable. I was never able to relax.
If you could go back in time, what advice would you give to your 20-something year old self?
I wouldn’t say anything to be honest. I don’t think I would be a good listener then and I wouldn’t want to change course. The good things or bad things that have happened to me, I did them with the best intentions at heart. I wouldn’t want to tell myself to get smarter earlier in life because I probably wouldn’t have listened to myself.
I’m disappointed by things, but I understand and I don’t live with that regret and I’m not happy when I spend time thinking about that. I look forward as much as possible and I know I won’t be perfect in everything I do. If we try and do everything right, we are probably being too cautious. You can’t be great by being safe and being afraid to fail.
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