Jim Paquette
	Position: Assistant Vice President/Director of Athletics

Jim Paquette is in his third academic year as Assistant Vice President/Director of Athletics at Loyola University Maryland after beginning his tenure at the school on April 1, 2010. He previously spent 16 years on the athletic leadership team at Boston College where he served as Associate Athletics Director for Development since 2002.

Unprecedented success came to the Loyola Department of Athletics during the 2011-2012 season.

The Loyola men's basketball team put up prolific numbers during a year that saw the Greyhounds win a school Division I record 24 games and the school's second Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title.

Loyola advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1994, setting attendance records along the way. The Greyhounds recorded the first back-to-back sellouts of Reitz Arena since the facility opened in 1984, and men's basketball season ticket revenue rose by more than 50-percent with single-game sales going up over 30-percent.

Not long after the men's basketball team wrapped up its campaign, the men's and women's lacrosse teams were fully engulfed in highly successful seasons, capped by something that had never occurred in Loyola's history.

The men's lacrosse team won the first NCAA Division I Championship in school history, tying the NCAA record with 18 wins in the process. A sprint to the championship on Memorial Day delivered attention to the athletic department only rivaled by the men's basketball run earlier in the year.

Loyola's athletic social media numbers rose by more than 200-percent in areas during the school year, and the Greyhounds received attention in publications ranging from the Wall Street Journal, to the New York Times to National Public Radio. Additionally, the athletics website, LoyolaGreyhounds.com, set annual and monthly records for traffic during the season, rising more than 14-percent from 2010-2011.

Just one week prior to the men's lacrosse title, the women's lacrosse program finished another exciting season in which it reached the NCAA Quarterfinals for the second time in as many years. The Greyhounds won the BIG EAST Conference crown for the second year in a row to get a repeat bid to the NCAA Championships.

Additionally, the men's golf team won the MAAC Championship and advanced to the NCAA Regional for the fifth year in a row.

Loyola's men's athletic department finished tied for 10th in the Capital One College Cup, the highest finish ever for a school with fewer than 4,000 students.

In addition to his commitment to Loyola, Paquette serves on the NCAA Men's Golf Committee and is chair of the MAAC Men's Golf Committee. He also continues his role on the MAAC Marketing and Television committee.

During his first two years on the Evergreen campus, the Loyola Athletic Department had a number of high-water performances in competition, academics and fundraising.

Thanks to an increased presence and dedication to generating resources and cultivating relationships from Greyhounds' supporters, Loyola realized a 30-percent increase in fundraising income during 2010-2011, and the department continued that upward trend in 2011-2012 with another record year, the 18th-consecutive year Paquette's development team has set a fundraising record.

Through his leadership, the athletic department has placed a high priority on the fan experience at Loyola events, and the marketing staff has helped to increase attendance across the board.

The athletic department also renewed its commitment to corporate partnerships with outside companies. Loyola Athletics signed sponsorship deals with several new businesses, and the department has continued to work to create increased revenue to support its programs.

In February 2012, Loyola announced its first all-sport athletic apparel sponsorship deal with Baltimore-based Under Armour. A world-class brand, Under Armour has helped give Greyhound student-athletes a competitive advantage, and this partnership helps strengthen the Loyola brand with consistent, high-performance gear from head-to-toe.

Loyola's student-athletes continued their achievements during the 2011-2012 academic year. Through the dedication of the Loyola academic support staff, coaches, administrators, and especially the hard work of the student-athletes, 60-percent of student-athletes finished the academic year with a grade point average of 3.0 or higher.

Loyola's women's basketball team excelled in 2010-2011, setting a school record with 21 overall, and 15 MAAC, victories. The Greyhounds advanced to the MAAC Championship Game for the second time in Head Coach Joe Logan's career at Loyola, and they received the program's first bid to the postseason WNIT.

The Greyhounds marked another milestone in the WNIT, winning the first postseason basketball game in Loyola history when they defeated Old Dominion on the Monarchs' home court. Following that victory, the school received a bid to host a WNIT Second Round contest against the University of Virginia. With Paquette's leadership, the Athletic Department collaborated with several other departments on campus to generate a fantastic crowd to support the team and the event.

Paquette's career in athletics administration dates back to his days as an undergraduate at Providence College, where he worked in the Friars' athletics ticket and fundraising offices. After graduating, he became an assistant ticket manager at the University of New Hampshire. While pursuing a master's degree in sports management at the University of Massachusetts, he worked in the university's football game-day operations and on a research grant from the NCAA on its championship promotions.

"Loyola is incredibly fortunate to welcome a leader of Jim's caliber to our athletics program," University President Brian F. Linnane said at the time of Paquette's hiring. "His experience and achievements at Boston College - like Loyola, a Jesuit university - demonstrate his profound understanding of the critical role athletics play in thriving universities. Boston College shares Loyola's philosophy that the best college athletics programs are distinguished not just by their successes in competition, but by their ability to shape men and women of character who serve as role models for their fellow students. I am confident that Jim will build upon the outstanding foundation established and that our Greyhounds athletics programs will continue to provide opportunities for Loyola's student-athletes to excel on the field, in the classroom, and in their communities, and will inspire extraordinary pride and spirit among all members of the university community for many years to come."

He joined Boston College in 1994 as a development assistant, and later accepted a series of positions of increasing responsibility within the university's athletic fundraising operations. As associate director of athletics, he also served as administrator for the Eagles' men's and women's tennis and skiing teams.

Boston College secured more than $211 million in athletic fundraising commitments during the time Paquette was a part of the university, and set athletic fundraising records in each of his 16 years at the institution. During his tenure at Boston College, the university secured $27 million for the Yawkey Athletics Center, making it the first building on campus to be 100 percent privately funded. Additionally, when Paquette arrived at Boston College in 1994, total cash gifts received by BC Athletics were $2 million; in 2009, more than $17 million in cash was received.

Responsible for the leasing and management of Boston College's 54 luxury suites, Paquette increased annual suite revenues by 59 percent since 2004. He also led the launch of Boston College's donor-based seating programs for football and basketball, initiatives which generated $2 million in new gift revenue.

During his tenure with the Eagles, he served as vice chair of the ACC Men's Tennis Committee and as a member of the ACC Student-Athlete Welfare Committee. Paquette also was a past chair of the ACC Development Committee. He served as the first vice president for the National Association of Athletic Development Directors (NAADD) and has served as an officer and executive committee member the past five years.

Paquette and his wife Erin have two sons, James and Brian, and the family lives in the Baltimore area.