I am pleased to announce that Jim Knowlton has agreed to become the next Director of Intercollegiate Athletics at the University of California, Berkeley.
A former student-athlete and one-time faculty member at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Jim has spent the past three years leading the athletic department at the Air Force Academy, a program that has enjoyed unprecedented success under his leadership.
By virtue of his experience, values and personal attributes, Jim stood out among the other candidates in what was a large and talented pool of applicants. He is an excellent communicator who thrives on challenges, and he shares my commitment to excellence, integrity and diversity. I am certain he will be the thought partner I sought, and the leader our campus needs to usher in a new era of excellence for Cal Athletics.
Throughout his career, Jim has demonstrated an unfailing commitment to high achievement, both in academics and athletics, with a proven track record as an adept manager who brings a great deal of strategic acumen when it comes to dealing with adversity and taking advantage of opportunities.
Jim received his bachelor’s degree in engineering in 1982 from West Point, where he was a four-year letter-winner and captain of the varsity ice hockey team. After 10 years of organizational leadership positions of increasing responsibility in the U.S. Army, Knowlton received a master’s degree in civil engineering from Cornell University and returned to West Point in 1992 to teach as a member of the academy’s faculty.
Jim’s career in athletics administration began as deputy director of athletics at West Point in 2003, where he oversaw more than 200 staff and supervised 25 intercollegiate teams with more than 1,000 student-athletes. His next stop on the road to Cal was at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, where Jim served as athletic director from 2008-15.
Jim began his tenure as the Air Force athletics director in March of 2015 and led a dramatic turn-around in the program’s fortunes. During his first two years there, Air Force teams combined for nine conference championships – the most during a two-year span in school history. Away from the field of play, Jim led the development and implementation of a strategic plan that led to improvements in the program’s community and alumni outreach, facilities, sponsorships and fundraising.
Jim will begin at Berkeley in late May and has made it very clear to me that he looks forward to being deeply engaged in the life of our campus and continuing with his long-standing embrace of an open and accessible leadership style. For now, Jim asked that I share this message from him:
“I could not be more excited about joining the Cal Family! Chancellor Christ’s vision and passion are contagious, and I look forward to joining her leadership team and the entire university community in the pursuit of excellence in all we do! I look forward to getting started and meeting our exceptional student-athletes, coaches, faculty and staff along with our alumni and supporters from across the campus, the state we serve, the nation and the world!”
You can find more about Jim’s professional and personal background here.
Even as we welcome Jim to our University, on behalf of the Cal community I want to offer my sincere thanks to Mike Williams for all that he has done for the campus and Cal Athletics. His focus on the needs, interests, and well-being of our student-athletes was unflagging – a priority we will continue to uphold. I also want to express my gratitude to the students, coaches, faculty members, alumni and administrators who served on what was an excellent search committee, as well our search firm, Witt/Kieffer, for its help in building a superb candidate pool.
In a recent message to the campus about the future of intercollegiate athletics on our campus, I made clear my belief that we can and will have a program that is financially sustainable, focused on the student-athlete experience and supportive of our University’s mission, standards and values. I am confident that at this pivotal moment we have found the right person to meet these challenges and transform them into opportunities for the benefit of our University and its extended community of students, alumni, staff, faculty and fans.
Go Bears!
Carol Christ
Chancellor