HICKORY, N.C. – Lenoir-Rhyne Athletics has announced the hiring of Jake Berry as the new Associate Athletic Director for Revenue Generation. Jake comes to Hickory after serving as the Assistant Athletic Director for Internal Operations at Appalachian St. since August and he also has six years of experience at the Division II level at the University of West Georgia as the Associate AD of Athletic Events and Facility Management.

In his role, Berry will assist with capital projects and head up efforts to generate new revenue from facility rentals and other auxiliary revenue streams. Berry will also supervise facilities and game operations staff.

"Lenoir-Rhyne is an institution with a culture of competitive excellence, an engaged community, strong leadership, and outstanding student-athletes and supporters," said Berry. "The opportunity to serve LR in this capacity and contribute towards the development of champions for life is truly an honor. I would like to thank Kim Pate, Justin Hay, and the entire athletic department for welcoming my family and me to the LR and Hickory communities."

At Appalachian St., Berry served as the department lead for capital projects and facility master planning. He also built, maintained and strengthened relationships with key partners and stakeholders and was responsible for all event logistics including game days and internal and external events. He managed a budget of nearly $2M and identified and recruited potential revenue generating and community engaging events. Berry also oversaw record-breaking attendances for football, including the single game attendance record at Kidd Brew Stadium, the App State season attendance record and the Sun Belt season attendance record.

At West Georgia, Berry started as an event coordinator in June 2016 and worked his way to the Associate Director in April 2021. He built, maintained and strengthened relationships with community leaders, businesses, organizations, clients, students and campus partners and created revenue generating events to athletic facilities. Jake led logistical aspects of football gameday operations including staffing, security, parking, tailgating and ushering and managed a large operations team. Berry was the point of contact for clients wishing to host camps, conferences and events at the university and administered client and partner surveys to understand how to best serve UWG stakeholders.

"We couldn't be more excited to welcome Jake into the Bear Family," said Senior Associate AD Justin Hay. "Jake is an extremely hard-working individual who understands Division II athletics at a high level. He has great interpersonal skills that will enable him to continue to build on the foundation of success of our corporate partnership program and maximize new revenue streams as a key priority of our external relations strategy."

Jake and his wife Kaitlyn welcomed their first child Nolan on Super Bowl Sunday. LR welcomes the entire Berry family to Hickory.