With more than 20 years of experience at the Division I level, Dr. Phil Esten returned to his alma mater St. Thomas as the Vice President, Director of Athletics in January 2019.
Esten wasted little time making an impact on Tommie Athletics. Faced with the task of finding a new conference home for all St. Thomas varsity sports just five months in to his tenure, Esten secured an invitation to the Summit League and approval from the NCAA to reclassify directly from Division III to Division I, a move never done before in modern intercollegiate athletics history. Led by an invite from the Summit League, invitations from the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) women's league, the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA), and the Pioneer Football League soon followed, giving all Tommie teams a Division I home.
Esten has also restructured the St. Thomas Athletic Department leadership into five key strategic business verticals: Administration, Development, Internal Operations, External Affairs, and Student-Athlete Welfare and Development. As a part of this restructuring, Esten has instituted a sport administration model, which further supports a student-athlete centric administrative model. He has also overseen the hiring of an Associate Athletic Director for Compliance and a Director of Academic Support Services for Athletics.
In competition, the Tommies have continued to succeed under Esten. St. Thomas finished 11th in Division III in the 2018-19 Learfield Director's Cup, a competition designed to measure an institution's success in postseason competition across the entire athletic department. The 2019-20 Director's Cup was cancelled due to limited competition, but the Tommies finished the fall season 19th after scoring in four sports, led by women's soccer's run to the quarterfinals.
Known for his expertise in strategic plan development and execution, facility development and programming, revenue generation and the external area of intercollegiate athletics (ICA), Esten has built a reputation for leadership and collaboration. His experience includes the development of three strategic plans for various departments, planning and fund raising for several comprehensive capital projects, development and oversight of restructuring and strategic alignment of external and advancement functions, strategic communications and public relations, identification of new and creative revenue streams, and brand development and management.
Esten came to St. Thomas after serving as Deputy Athletic Director and Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Penn State University from 2014-2018, where he oversaw day-to-day operations for the Nittany Lions’ 31 athletic programs. Esten was responsible for the athletic department’s development, marketing, sales, creative, strategic communications, capital projects, facilities and event management efforts. He also was a sport administrator for the football, baseball and men’s and women’s gymnastics programs, while serving as the architect of the department’s strategic plan, comprehensive facilities master plan and several key revenue generation initiatives.
Before arriving at Penn State, Esten served two years as the Deputy Director of Athletics for External Relations and Chief Development Officer at the University of California-Berkeley. While at Berkeley Esten restructured the development office to support a more comprehensive advancement function, a complete visual identify refresh of the Cal brand and served as sport administrator for several Bears sports.
He also brings experience from the University of Minnesota, where he served as an Associate Athletic Director and the point person for the planning, construction, fundraising and corporate sponsorship for TCF Bank Stadium, while also leading the management and evaluation of the department’s strategic plan and serving as a sport administrator for several Gopher Sports. Esten slid over to the Alumni Association as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the organization for two-and-a-half years. Organizational and financial realignment, as well as revenue generation and brand extension, were among key accomplishments of Esten’s time with the Alumni Association, while maintaining a key focus on legislative advocacy for the University.
Esten started his career in college athletics at The Ohio State University as the Assistant Director of Athletic Ticketing and Event Management. Dr. Esten received his master’s from Ohio State before moving on to earn a PhD in Kinesiology from the University of Minnesota.
A native of La Crosse, Wis., Esten is a former student-athlete himself, having played baseball at St. Thomas while earning his undergraduate degree in the spring of 1995. Esten and his wife, Dani, have three children (Lucas, Cooper, and Hannah).