Sports Lawyer John Mack Named Director of Athletics at Princeton

Sep 10, 2021

John Mack, who has previously held the title of student-athlete, coach, and administrator at Princeton University, has added another role to his resume – Director of Athletics. He succeeds Mollie Marcoux Samaan, who announced in May she would be stepping down to take over as commissioner of the LPGA.

Mack, who has spent time as a collegiate athletics administrator at Princeton as well as with the Big Ten Conference and at Northwestern University, has most recently spent the last decade in the legal field as a practicing lawyer.

His career in college athletics began at his alma mater where from 2000-04 he served as Assistant Director of Intercollegiate Programming responsible for coordinating facility use and competition schedules for all varsity programs as well as event operations for home contests. In addition, he served as assistant women’s track and field coach from 2002-04, working directly with the team’s sprinters and helping lead team-wide recruiting efforts.

Mack then transitioned to a role at the Big Ten where he served as Associate Director of Championships from 2004-06. From 2006-11, Mack worked at Northwestern, where he was Senior Associate Director of Athletics for Sales and Marketing. While with the Wildcats, he negotiated sponsorship agreements with corporate partners and managed all aspects of the university’s licensing and merchandising program.

In 2011, Mack began his legal career as a law student at Northwestern where he graduated from in 2014 with cum laude honors. While a law student, Mack was Associate Editor of Northwestern’s Journal of Law and Social Policy, captain of the Mock Trial Team, and Education Chair of the school’s Black Law Students’ Association. His legal practice focused on complex commercial litigation and products liability cases, and he is admitted to practice in state and federal court in Michigan.

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