Brett Berg serves as Assistant Vice President for Development at the University of West Florida. He serves on the leadership teams of the Division of University Advancement and the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. He oversees all fundraising activities for the university’s athletic programs, including annual giving, major gifts, planned giving, corporate giving and the Argonaut Athletic Club, the official booster organization for UWF. He plans and manages all capital fundraising initiatives and football game day development operations. Berg and his team have set fundraising records each year in either the number of donors, total dollars raised, pledges or planned gifts to support the Argonauts. He has secured 21 of the top 25 largest gifts to UWF Athletics including the first six-figure gift and seven-figure gift for athletics in university history. He was recently named the ‘Outstanding Fundraising Professional’ by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and ‘National Fundraiser of the Year’ by the National Association of Athletic Development Directors (NAADD).
Prior to his current role, Berg served as the Director of Development and Associate Athletic Director for the University of West Florida. Berg served on the executive leadership team for the university’s 50th Anniversary capital campaign, a campaign that set records and was the most successful capital campaign in the history of the university raising more than $65 million. He oversaw revenue generation and all external operations for athletics including marketing, promotions, corporate sales, community service, fundraising and the Argonaut Athletic Club. He also oversaw many support groups including the cheerleaders, student rewards program, kids club, band and mascot. His team also launched the Argo Armada App, Argie’s Kids Club, Argie’s Reading & Recess and many other communications, community service and marketing initiatives. In 2017, records were set again in total sponsors, total sponsorship dollars, total donors and total donations, as more than $3 million were committed to athletics that year.
Berg served on the leadership team that researched and planned the addition of the schools’ 15th sport and brought football to the University of West Florida. He led the team that created the game experience and many football game day traditions. He and his team were responsible for all marketing, promotions and development for football including: game environment, timelines, public address announcer scripts, in-stadium advertising, video and ribbon boards, signage, game program advertising, team introduction, in-game promotions, sponsor fulfillment, recognitions, pre and postgame entertainment, Argo Village, Argo Walk, Argie’s Kids Club Zone, the Argo Club and the President’s Box. He also led all football playoff events and championship game planning for fans and donors, with university alumni and donor events at all away playoff games and championship game sites.
Berg also led the effort to maximize profits for football season tickets and parking. He created a new priority point loyalty process to distribute access to season tickets and communicated that with donors for years before the first season. He also created and implemented a football parking structure that increased donations and renewals. Berg and his team created a football ticket interest list, driving those interested to become donors and then drove season ticket sales. They were able to create a dedicated season ticket base committed to the program with one of the highest ticket prices in NCAA D2 yet still finished in the top 25 in football attendance in the inaugural season and every season since.
Berg has a long and varied history with the University of West Florida. He worked for UWF Athletics during the 1990’s and the 2000’s, working in operations, marketing and sports information. He also covered UWF athletics in local media, including radio and the Pensacola News Journal and hosted the “Inside UWF Athletics” television show. Berg came back to UWF full-time in 2009 taking the director of marketing and corporate relations position. In this position he oversaw all corporate sponsorships, fulfillment, marketing and sales. During that time UWF Athletics had record growth setting new highs in the number of sponsors and sponsorship dollars. In 2010 he was promoted to assistant director of development and assistant athletic director and took over development, fundraising and the Argonaut Athletic Club. Berg was promoted to associate director of development and associate athletic director in 2013. Then was promoted to director of development in 2015 and assistant vice president in 2018.
Berg brings a varied background to the job, including experience in athletics, health care, tourism, museums and the attractions industry. Berg worked as director of marketing and public relations at the Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center and IMAX Theater in Mobile, Ala. starting in 2006. While there, Berg oversaw all marketing, advertising, public relations, media relations and was the museum spokesperson. He fundraised to bring in world renowned exhibitions and served as the Exhibit Director for multiple national traveling exhibitions. He was instrumental in the Exploreum receiving many awards and recognitions including being named a Top-15 science center by Parents Magazine and being named the Alabama Attraction of the Year.
Prior to his time working in the tourism and attraction industry, Berg worked in Pensacola as the assistant director of the Baptist Health Care Foundation. While at the BHC Foundation, he oversaw many fundraising initiatives that helped renovate the women’s center, generated funds and recognition for labor and delivery, built a new cancer center and conducted a nationally recognized employee giving program. He served on the leadership team for two capital campaigns, one for Gulf Breeze Hospital and a comprehensive campaign for the entire health care system that was the most successful campaign ever for Baptist Health Care.
Before working for the BHC Foundation, Berg served as the director of Baptist SportsCare. Here he oversaw all marketing to physically active groups for Baptist Health Care. While guiding the SportsCare program, BHC started providing medical coverage for area high schools and was recognized in the state and nationally for their partnership opportunities. Berg started the mass sports physicals for Escambia County high school athletes and received national exposure for being the first in the country to offer echocardiograms to all student-athletes thanks to a partnership with the cardiology group.
Berg worked for the Pensacola News Journal for more than 10 years, serving as a correspondent and writing numerous articles on high school and collegiate sports. Berg also served as an adjunct instructor and was promoted to a faculty associate at UWF, teaching multiple courses in the Department of Communication Arts since 2002. Berg has taught more than 30 collegiate courses over 20 years.
Berg graduated with his bachelor’s degree in communications from Florida State in 1994 and received his master’s degree with an emphasis in sports administration from Clemson in 1997. He worked for several years in sports information, first while attending UWF from 1990-92 and again as a graduate assistant at Clemson from 1995-97.
While at Clemson, Berg was a graduate assistant for both sports information and sports marketing. He wrote and edited press releases, game program articles and sport media guides. Many of the guides he worked on won numerous COSIDA national Top-10 awards, including guides for football, men’s basketball, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, men’s soccer, women’s soccer and men’s and women’s swimming and diving.
While at Florida State, Berg worked for FSU Athletics in the men’s basketball office. He assisted recruiting, media requests, camps and autograph requests for FSU teams that included the Heisman trophy winner and multiple All-ACC selections. While working in the office, FSU Basketball finished second in the ACC each year and advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 and the NCAA Elite Eight.
His athletics experience also includes working the men’s and women’s ACC basketball tournaments, working at numerous college football bowl games, working on many national television broadcasts and working as the autograph coordinator for a Heisman trophy winner. Berg was also a media manager for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games in 1996. He was on the media leadership team for the Summer Olympic Aquatics Venue and worked with media for the sports of swimming, diving, water polo, synchronized swimming and modern pentathlon. He also was a supervisor for the NFL’s Carolina Panthers, overseeing a bank of more than 75 suites for their inaugural season in Clemson and their first two seasons in Charlotte.
Brett is the son of retired UWF athletic director and UWF Athletics Hall of Fame inductee Richard Berg. He is married to Teresa, a double UWF graduate, and they have four children, Hayden, Charlotte, Berkeley and Lily.
