Arkansas Business

Kale Gober

Kale Gober went from playing football for the Henderson State University Reddies to being the school's director of athletics.
At 25, the El Dorado native is one of the youngest athletic directors at any college in the country.
Gober, who was hired in August, oversees the university's 13 men's and women's sports programs and supervises 21 employees and more than 300 student athletes who play for the NCAA Division II program.
Growing up, Gober had plans to be a football coach. But while taking graduate classes at the University of Central Arkansas at Conway, he worked with the school's athletic director and was hooked.
He enjoyed meeting people and encouraging them to donate to the university, which is "what being an athletic director is," he said.
Henderson State is leaving the Gulf South Conference for a new one in the fall of 2011, and Gober is the chair of the Strategic Planning Committee for the conference, which doesn't yet have a name.
He said his management philosophy was to be a servant and a leader. "If you serve people, then they'll see that you don't think that you're above them," Gober said.