South Carolina Tabs Wesley Mallette as Next Deputy AD/Chief Marketing Officer for Gamecocks Athletics
South Carolina athletics has named Wesley Mallette as its next Deputy Athletics Director and Chief Marketing Officer, University of South Carolina Athletics Director Jeremiah Donati announced on Wednesday.
Mallette joins the department after serving as the Athletics Director at the University of California, Riverside. He joined UC Riverside back in 2018 before becoming the AD in 2021. During his tenure, Mallette was able to navigate a crisis as the entire 17-sport department was saved from being eliminated during the COVID-19 pandemic in his first year at the helm. Since that time, Mallette witnessed several of the Highlander teams perform at historically high levels on both the fields of competition and in the classroom.
Current AD Jeremiah Donati expects Mallette to be a great addition to the department as a whole.
“On behalf of our entire athletics department we are thrilled to welcome Wes and his family to South Carolina,” said Donati. “We identified a tremendous pool of traditional and non-traditional candidates for this position and he quickly rose to the top of the list. Wes brings a wealth of energy and experience, having touched every aspect of an athletics program. Particularly, his experience in external relations from marketing, branding, content creation, communications and the NIL space will be critical as we continue to embrace a new landscape across college athletics. He will be a great addition to our leadership team, our athletics department, to our university and to the city of Columbia, and we look forward to the positive impact he will have with Gamecock student-athletes,” added Donati.
University of South Carolina Athletics has officially tapped Wesley Mallette as its next Deputy Athletic Director and Chief Marketing Officer, signaling a strategic shift in how the Gamecocks brand will be positioned both regionally and nationally.
Mallette’s appointment puts a fresh focus on elevating fan engagement, sponsorship activation, and digital presence. As the voice behind South Carolina’s athletics marketing, he’ll oversee everything from social media campaigns and game-day fan experiences to revenue-driving partnerships and multimedia storytelling.
With Gamecock Athletics navigating evolving dynamics in conference alignments, NIL, and collegiate media rights, Mallette’s arrival comes at a crucial inflection point. His leadership is expected to bring innovative brand strategies, deeper corporate relationships, and ambitious storytelling initiatives that resonate across platforms and generations of fans.
His proven expertise in sports marketing, combined with a vision for building a unified brand identity, positions him to help South Carolina sharpen its competitive edge — both on the field and in the broader athletic marketplace.
