Associate Director of Athletics, Advancement & Princeton Varsity Club
A member of Princeton Athletics since 2012, Brendan Van Ackeren leads and manages the Princeton Varsity Club (PVC) in concert with Athletics Advancement unit. Part of the department’s Senior Team, Van Ackeren oversees PVC programming, fundraising and alumni engagement efforts while guiding central Athletics financial, endowment and donor strategies. In partnership with Princeton’s 18 Athletics Friends Groups, he has helped oversee Tiger Athletics Give Day (TAGD), an annual Athletics-dedicated 24-hour fundraising initiative that has raised nearly $42 million across 86,000 gifts since its inception in 2014
Van Ackeren coordinates alumni cultivation and stewardship events, assists with student-athlete programming, and leads the 700-person year-end Gary Walters ’67 PVC Awards Banquet in celebration of Princeton Athletics and its senior class. Additionally, he helps oversee the the PVC’s brand management, design, content creation and multimedia efforts, and helped design and implement the Tigers Coaches’ Summit, an annual multi-day retreat for all coaches across the Department of Athletics. He is also actively involved in the department’s career development strategy and programming for student-athletes and alumni, general recruiting efforts and strategic initiatives.
Van Ackeren is the primary sport administrator for Princeton wrestling, and secondary support for the football program, and oversees the PVC Board of Directors, a volunteer alumni advisory board with cross-department representation.
Van Ackeren previously served as a member of Princeton Athletics’ Finance and Business Operations where he assisted with Athletics budget management, financial and NCAA/EADA reporting and team travel. He also helped lead implementation efforts around a new University-wide chart of accounts, travel management platform and ticketing system. Van Ackeren was honored with Princeton Athletics’ Lorin Maurer h78 Award in 2020.
Prior to Princeton, Van Ackeren was a business consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) Mergers & Acquisitions advisory practice in New York City, where he helped support due diligence reviews and merger integration efforts for clients including The Carlyle Group, Abbott Pharmaceuticals, Estée Lauder Companies and Manhattan Supply Company.
A native of Bethlehem, Pa., Van Ackeren holds a Bachelor of Science with honors in industrial engineering and a minor in business from Lehigh University. Van Ackeren was a four-year letterwinner and team captain for Lehigh Football, and was honored with the Lehigh Athletic Department’s John A. Cable Award for outstanding graduating male leader in 2009. Van Ackeren resides in the Princeton area with his wife Lisa (head coach for Princeton Softball) and two young children, Jordyn (8) and Jace (4).
Select photos of Brendan Van Ackeren during his time with Princeton Athletics:
