Real Salt Lake name Rob Zarkos executive VP of soccer operations

Rob Zarkos - Real Salt Lake - at his desk - 2017

Real Salt Lake have hired Rob Zarkos as executive vice president of soccer operations as part of a front-office restructure, the club announced Wednesday.


Zarkos, who previously served as president of Real Monarchs and vice president of soccer administration for the organization from 2014-2018, will oversee Real Salt Lake, Real Monarchs SLC, Utah Royals FC and the Real Salt Lake academy. He reports directly to owner Dell Loy Hansen.


ā€œIā€™m excited for this opportunity and it gives me the authority to get things done and execute Mr. Hansenā€™s vision,ā€ Zarkos said in a statement.  ā€œThis will allow us to integrate from top-to-bottom efficiently. Weā€™ve grown very quickly and itā€™s time to integrate everything, put in systems, processes and procedures and generally operate better. I come from a background of building companies and optimizing them, so when it came time to optimize the team side, I jumped at it.ā€


Prior to moving to Utah, Zarkos spent the previous five years working for Hansen as in-house counsel and VP of Operations in the Wasatch Company's real estate side.


According to the team, Zarkosā€™ hire will allow RSL general manager Craig Waibel to narrow his focus on the technical aspects of building the Real Salt Lake roster.