Villanova President, Fr. Peter Donohue announced the hiring of Mark Jackson on Tuesday as the University's new Athletic Director.
Mark Jackson @MJUSC appointed Director of Athletics: http://t.co/Y1DRDATDfz | #NovaNation pic.twitter.com/pK2IGbpob6
— Villanova Athletics (@NovaAthletics) August 25, 2015
Jackson comes to the Main Line from USC where he was a Senior Associate Athletic Director for the Trojans where he was charge of capital projects and Chief Innovation Office for the past six years.
The resume for the new AD has a very heavy gridiron-focused background. Previous to his time at Southern Cal, Jackson, who played college football at Colby, was an Asst. Athletic Director at Syracuse and worked in development for the Oakland Raiders. Additionally, Jackson interned with the New England Patriots, and was USC’s director of football administration during Pete Carroll’s first 4 years (2001-04) at Troy.
The Director of Athletics position opened in June when Vince Nicastro announced a move to the Villanova Law School as Associate Director of the Jeffrey S. Moorad Center for the Study of Sports Law.
Jackson grew up in Massachusetts before his professional career kicked-off. He is married with four children. He hopes to be at Villanova "for a very, very, very long time."