Brendan Van Ackeren - Associate Director of Athletics/Advancement & Princeton Varsity Club - Staff Directory

Staff Directory

Brendan Van Ackeren

Title:
Associate Director of Athletics/Advancement & Princeton Varsity Club
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A member of Princeton Athletics since 2012, Brendan Van Ackeren leads and manages the Princeton Varsity Club (PVC) in concert with the Athletics Advancement unit. Van Ackeren oversees PVC core programming, fundraising and alumni engagement efforts while helping to guide 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 more than $35 million across 80,000 gifts since its inception in 2014.

Van Ackeren coordinates alumni cultivation and stewardship events, assists with student-athlete community service 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 helped design and implement the Tigers Coaches' Summit, an annual multi-day retreat for all coaches across the Department of Athletics. Van Ackeren has primary and secondary sport administrator responsibilities for select programs, 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 manage 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 (Lehigh ’09; head coach of Princeton softball), daughter Jordyn and son Jace.