After 17 years of leading GW’s athletic department, Jack Kvancz will retire this summer and serve as a University adviser while the president of the New York Yankees conducts a comprehensive review of GW sports programs.

The University will create a “new strategic plan” for the department – likely prompted by a series of disappointing seasons for the University’s flagship programs: the men’s and women’s basketball teams – a news release said.

Kvancz oversaw GW Athletics while it grew to boast its 22 varsity sports and was the department’s top brass during six NCAA Tournament appearances for men’s basketball and 12 appearances for women’s basketball team. GW teams also won multiple Atlantic 10 championships in men’s and women’s basketball and soccer, and baseball and volleyball during his tenure.

“I’ve been thinking about this for a couple years,” Kvancz said Thursday night. “The time was just right.”

Kvancz told the University of his decision yesterday, but said this has been something he has “been thinking about for a few years.”

A national search for a new athletic director is set to begin immediately. Kvancz’s retirement is effective July 1.

The review of the GW Athletics will include an “evaluation of athletics management, sponsorships, fundraising and facilities and infrastructure. The strategic plan also will review the student-athlete experience,” a release said. GW’s highest governing body, the Board of Trustees, named alumnus Randy Levine, president of the New York Yankees, as chair of its newly formed Athletics Committee – the committee that will lead the evaluation to “determine how best to raise the university’s athletic performance profile nationally.”

Kvancz said the review of the department is connected with the men’s and women’s basketball teams’ lackluster season, but added that it was bigger than those two teams.

“It’s bigger than that, it’s all sports,” he said. “It’s what we’re doing all around.”