CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Thomas Theodorakis has been hired as the new Senior Associate Director of Development, Major Gifts within Harvard Alumni Affairs and Development, it was announced this week by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Development Team.
 
In this role, Theodorakis will serve as a member of the FAS Major Gifts team under the direction of the Associate Vice President and Dean of Development, Faculty Arts and Sciences, Armin Afsahi, who was instrumental in the creation of this new position. Theodorakis will serve as a key point person between Athletics and Major Gifts to help drive strategies for major gifts to Athletics and execute on special fundraising initiatives as they arise in coordination with Erin McDermott, John D. Nichols '53 Family Director of Athletics.  He will play a leading role in identifying, engaging, and soliciting major donors and prospects for Athletics, with an eye towards maximizing overall giving to Harvard and the FAS. 
 
"We look forward to welcoming Tom to the Harvard community and furthering our fundraising partnership with Athletics," Afsahi said. "The creation of this role speaks to the strength and generosity of our athletics community, and how deeply embedded athletics is in the FAS.  Throughout our conversations, Tom has made clear his commitment to the student-athlete ideal, and to the type of collaboration that will support an exciting future for Harvard Athletics and the entire FAS."
 
"I am grateful to both Armin for his leadership and partnership in support of this position, and to Tom for joining us, as we endeavor to fulfill the vision for Harvard Athletics," McDermott said. "It is exciting to welcome such a mission-driven professional who shares our commitment to the student-athletes experience."
 
Working closely with partners in Athletics, FAS Finance and Administration, and FAS Development, Theodorakis will also create case statements and gift opportunities pertaining to key initiatives, and develop systems to track and streamline joint efforts between Athletics and FAS Development.
 
"I am incredibly honored to serve the Harvard community, and want to thank Armin Afsahi and Erin McDermott for this special opportunity," Theodorakis said. "I look forward to working together to further the mission of education through athletics and continue to build community and pride through Harvard Athletics."
 
Theodorakis comes to Harvard with over 15 years of college athletics experience at the Division I level as an administrator, coach and national champion student-athlete. Most recently, he served as the Associate Athletics Director for Development at the University of Arizona since 2015. 
 
While at Arizona, Theodorakis led a staff that contributed to over $67M in capital campaign support and served in several key leadership roles on the senior staff, sport administration and revenue generation units. Theodorakis was responsible for strategic planning of revenue generation, primarily through major and annual giving, season ticket priority, endowments and planned gifts. He served on the revenue generation teams focusing on all external facets of athletics and was also a sports administrator for several varsity programs. Theodorakis also worked on several other initiatives, including diversity & inclusion - health and wellness and COVID-19 emergency response, among others. He oversaw eight full-time staff-members in his role at Arizona and brings extensive experience in leadership roles in administration, development, marketing, sales, events and public relations to Cambridge. 
 
Theodorakis was previously at UCLA, where he served as the Associate Athletics Director for External Affairs and supervised the day-to-day operations of the development office. He was integral in producing exponential growth in Westwood with the groundbreaking of two comprehensive training centers, the Wasserman Football Center and the Mo Ostin Basketball Center.
 
Prior to UCLA, Theodorakis spent five years in a first stint at Arizona as Assistant Athletics Director for Development. He was an important part of two major capital campaigns undertaken by Arizona Athletics, the state-of-art Lowell-Stevens Football Facility and Phase 1 of the McKale Center Renovation Project, while also serving as the Pac-12 conference representative for NACDA. Prior to Arizona, Theodorakis worked in the Marketing and Development office at the United States Air Force Academy and was a volunteer coach on the men's lacrosse team. 
 
A native of Stony Brook, New York, Theodorakis earned a bachelor's degree and was a national champion men's lacrosse student-athlete at Syracuse University, graduating in 2006, before earning a master's degree at the University of Northern Colorado in 2008. He is also a graduate of the Sports Management Institute (SMI) Executive Program and attended instruction at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and the University of Texas McCombs School of Business. He is currently pursuing his Doctorate in Education Leadership at Arizona, focusing his dissertation on diversity, inclusion and belonging in athletics, and is the recipient of the Distinguished Leadership Fellowship Award.