CLEVELAND - #NAADD25th: In honor of NAADD's 25 years of commitment to the development of collegiate athletics, NAADD will be featuring the full testimonials of Past Presidents throughout 2018.

Here is the full testimonial from February's featured Past President; Mark Dienhart President/CEO of the Richard M. Schulze Foundation, who served as association President in 1994-95.

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A Minneapolis native, Dienhart graduated summa cum laude from the University of St. Thomas (Minn.) in 1975 with a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy. A member of the St. Thomas Athletic Hall of Fame, he was a two-sport athlete (football, track and field) earning All-American and Academic All-American in both.

An NCAA Division III national champion and former national record-holder in the shot put, Dienhart was drafted in the 13th round by the Buffalo Bills in the 1975 NFL Draft. A former NCAA postgraduate scholarship winner, Dienhart earned a master's in journalism and mass communications and would go on to receive a doctorate in higher education administration from the University of Minnesota and was awarded a Bush Foundation Fellowship.

Dienhart would return to St. Thomas, coaching the Tommies men's track and field squad to an Indoor National Championship in 1985. Within six years, he was head coach of both men's track and field and football. He left coaching to become executive director of public and alumni affairs at St. Thomas.

From his alma mater, Dienhart moved across town to the University of Minnesota and rom 1990-2000, Dienhart served the University of Minnesota men's athletics department in various capacities, moving up the ranks from associate AD to senior association AD to the athletics director chair. While at Minnesota, he led the fundraising campaigns for the construction of Mariucci Arena and the remodeling of Williams Arena, while securing monies for the naming of the Gibson/Nagurski Football Practice Facility.

In 2000, Dienhart returned to St. Thomas to serve in the role of executive vice president and chief operating officer. As a top executive at Minnesota's largest private university, he was responsible for managing non-academic administrative operations.

Under Dienhart's leadership, St. Thomas' net assets grew 63 percent (63%), endowment assets by 68 percent (68%), undergraduate enrollment increased by 21 percent (21%), applications doubled and budgets balanced. He directed a $515 million capital campaign that added seven major buildings, including two downtown Minneapolis structures financed by donations from Richard M. Schulze: the School of Law and Schulze Hall, home of the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship. Overall, he served his alma mater for 27 years over two stents in St. Paul.

Dienhart is currently the President & CEO of the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation and responsible for the foundation's overall management and strategic direction after taking the position in 2013. Also a member of the Foundation's board of trustees, Dienhart researches the Foundation's priorities, makes grant recommendations to the Board, oversees monitoring and measurement of recipient performance to ensure that grants produce meaningful results, and supervises the Foundation's staff and infrastructure.

As NAADD's second President from 1994-95, Dienhart helped sustain the initial growth and development, established by NAADD's first President Pat Ogle. While at the helm, Dienhart furthered the Association's goals and vision, helping usher in a bright future. In 2012, Dienhart received the Association's highest honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award, for the years of leadership and exceptional service to collegiate athletics throughout his career.

Here is what Mark had to say about NAADD:

1. Why should someone become a NAADD member?

Athletics is a vitally important part of American higher education and American culture. Never before have the financial needs associated with collegiate athletics been greater and more difficult to secure. Athletics development officers need to have professional interactions and development opportunities to assemble the right toolkits to deal with these challenging times. NAADD provides that.

2. What has NAADD meant to you?

NAADD was the source of great professional contacts, good and supportive colleagues and friends and served to professionalize the entire specialty of athletics development in a way nothing before or after could have.

3. What impact did your time as NAADD President have on you as a professional?

It helped set a very high bar for success for the work in which I was involved. The great people I met with great ideas and, most importantly, great accomplishments served as inspirations and benchmarks.

4. What is your fondest memory of serving as NAADD President?

Being at the table with all of the leaders of NACDA, NAADD and NACMA trying to do the best we could to shape the future of college athletics for our institutions, our student-athletes and the millions of people in this country who care about it.

5. How do you see NAADD progressing in the next five years? Next ten years?

Given trends in higher ed, NAADD members should expect that an even greater burden of the expense of college athletics will need to be supported by charitable giving. There are movements afoot at the national level to restrict the benefits accorded to philanthropy in a way that would severely affect giving to higher ed and athletics. There are those who believe that only gifts and grants to economically underprivileged groups should receive the current tax benefits accorded to all philanthropic giving. NAADD needs to be in the fight against this approach which would try to dictate where philanthropy can and should exist...or would try to create tax laws that would put current philanthropic resources in the hands of government to disburse as it sees fit. NAADD needs to be, if it is not already, interested and active at the level of state and national policy/politics.

Be sure to check back for our March Madness edition. NAADD will spotlight Past Presidents Bob Bonn (2001-02) and Earl Edwards (2002-03) throughout the month.

Stay up-to-date on the 25th Anniversary celebration and all things NAADD related by following NAADD on Twitter by using the hashtag #NAADD25th and #PastPresidentTestimonial.


About NAADD: NAADD is the first organization of its kind to provide educational and networking opportunities, enhancement of acceptable operating standards and ethics, and establishment of the overall prestige and understanding of the profession of athletics development and fund raising. For more information about NAADD, please visit www.naadd.com. NAADD is administered by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), which is in its 53rd year. For more information on NACDA and the 17 professional associations that fall under its umbrella, please visit www.nacda.com.