Brendan Sullivan
Brendan Sullivan
Title: Director of Intercollegiate Athletics
Phone: (508) 565-1384
Email: bjsullivan@stonehill.edu
Previous College: Notre Dame, '01

Brendan Sullivan is in his seventh year as Director of Intercollegiate Athletics at Stonehill College. He has been with the College for 13 years and has a 12 year association with the athletic department. As Director of Athletics, Sullivan manages all aspects of the department, comprised of 20 intercollegiate athletic programs and 470 student athletes.

Sullivan has guided the Skyhawks through a period of unprecedented success, not only in the field of play, but the classroom as well. Stonehill has finished in the top three of the Northeast-10 Conference Presidents’ Cup all seven years under his direction, including a run of three-straight Presidents’ Cup titles from 2009-10 through 2011-12 academic years, given to signify overall success in all Conference sports. Stonehill is ranked third in the most recent National Collegiate Scouting Association (NCSA) Power Rankings, used to assess the academic and athletic standards of all NCAA program, and has regularly been ranked in the final Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup standings recognizing overall athletic achievement in NCAA Championships.

The program has thrived athletically while maintaining a high level of academic excellence, as the College has received the NCAA Division II Presidents’ Award for Academic Excellence, honoring athletic programs with a four-year academic success rating (ASR) of 90-percent or better, each of the first four years of the program. Stonehill student-athletes have achieved an ASR of 96-percent or better each year since the NCAA has started publicizing the statistic.

Since taking over as Director of Athletics prior to the 2008-09 academic year, the Stonehill athletics program has won 29 Northeast-10 Conference Championships, including ten over the last 18 months, and earned 45 NCAA Tournament bids, including an impressive nine during the 2009-10 academic year as the Skyhawks captured their first of three-straight NE-10 Presidents’ Cups. That year Stonehill served as host of the NCAA Division II Field Hockey Championships as well as the men’s basketball East Regional. The men’s basketball team also reached the Elite Eight after claiming a second regional championship in 2011-12. Corey Thomas, ‘13 produced the men’s track & field program’s first National Champion in the indoor high jump in 2011 and current junior Emma Zamierowski won an individual Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA) Hunter Seat National Championship for walk-trot equitation in May.

Sullivan has played a vital role in the fundraising, conceptual development and planned construction of the 50,000-square foot Fr. Mark Cregan Athletics & Recreation Center, which has a planned opening of August 2015. The $18-million dollar facility will be a much needed addition for varsity and recreational sports to include vastly superior athletic fitness, lockerrom and training facilities. He also assisted in the creation and implementation of a capital campaign that raised 2.5-million dollars towards the construction of W.B. Mason Stadium which opened in September 2005.

Sullivan is very active for the athletic department, not just on the Stonehill campus, but with both the Northeast-10 and NCAA Division II. He currently serves on the NE-10’s Administrative Committee after completing a term as Chair of the NE-10 Finance Committee, which is responsible for annually drafting, approving and amending the Conference’s budget. Sullivan is a member of the College’s Enrollment Management Committee, assisting in annually setting enrollment priorities for admitting and yielding a talented and diverse pool of students. He has also served as a member of the NCAA Division II women’s lacrosse national committee.

Prior to taking over as the fifth athletic director in Stonehill history in July 2008, Sullivan served two years as Associate Director of Athletics after three years as the department’s Assistant Director of Athletics. In these roles, he oversaw all aspects of program administration for football, women’s lacrosse and women’s soccer, while also supervising the Office of Athletic Communications. He initiated and supervised the implementation, marketing and execution of Stonehill’s successful summer sports camps which assist in increasing department revenues.

Sullivan designed and implemented the Stonehill Leadership Academy, which educates its student-athletes on leadership, self-branding and communications skills. Prior to taking over as Athletic Director, he founded and established Stonehill’s Varsity Club, a dues based alumni association with current membership over 200 alumni members and a Director’s Board of 30 alumni volunteers. He has been a member of the College’s Enrollment Management Committee, Strategic Planning Committee, Marketing Committee and Web Redesign Team.

Sullivan served one year as Assistant Controller/Budget Analyst at Stonehill prior to joining the athletic department in 2003, where he assisted in drafting, revising, implementing and monitoring the College’s annual operating and capital budgets.

Sullivan was recently one of 50 sports figures to be honored at the inaugural Irish Sports 50 awards presented by the Irish Voice newspaper at the American Irish Historical Society. He is an active member of the Spina Bifida Association of Massachusetts, having served eight years on its Board of Directors, including two years as president from 2007-09. Sullivan directed the organization responsible for assisting and advocating for the 500-plus affected families in the state. He received the 2005 National Spina Bifida Association Award for Public Relations for efforts promoting awareness by using the 2004 Boston Marathon as a vehicle.

Sullivan earned his Master’s in Business Administration from Boston College in 2010, being inducted into the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society.

Sullivan is a 2001 graduate of the University of Notre Dame, where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree in finance. He was active in the Fighting Irish athletic department during his undergraduate career, serving as equipment manager for the men’s basketball program for two years and student manager of the football program for one.

Sullivan and his wife, Sara, reside in Charlestown, Mass., with their daughter, Emma (1).