Aspire & Purdue Innovate, Hire Jack Gallagher as Director of NIL Engagement

(ATLANTA, GA) – The Aspire Group (Aspire) and Purdue University (Purdue) have further enhanced their partnership by hiring Jack Gallagher as the Director of NIL Engagement. Gallagher will educate Purdue student-athletes on the rapidly shifting landscape of name, image, and likeness opportunities, while serving as the point of contact for prospective partner brands.

Gallagher has helped Purdue student-athletes and their families navigate tax preparation, international sponsorship nuances, and existing university brand deals.

“Providing an elite experience and first-class resources to our Boilermaker student-athletes is one of our most important missions at Purdue,” said Tom Moreland, Senior Associate Athletics Director for Strategic Initiatives and Chief Revenue Officer at Purdue. “Our close alignment with The Aspire Group has allowed our department to bring a unique role to the forefront of our efforts in the name, image, and likeness landscape. We’re excited to have Jack Gallagher as part of our team, and we look forward to continuing to boldly push Purdue ahead in this dynamic era of college athletics.”

Gallagher will also assist Purdue Athletics in implementing its Boilermaker Marketplace INFLCR platform, which will create business connections, streamline payments, and simplify reporting processes for student-athletes.

“Hats off to The Aspire Group and Purdue University for investing in resources dedicated to education and engagement with external parties around NIL opportunities for their student-athletes,” said Founder and CEO of INFLCR, Jim Cavale. “INFLCR was designed as an agnostic platform that enables schools to choose best-in-class partners, like Aspire, to drive tangible results around NIL activation. We love what it signals to the industry, and more importantly, how it serves the student-athletes.”

Gallagher will report directly to both Bill Fagan, Aspire’s President & CEO, and Purdue’s internal NIL task force. His status as an Aspire employee helps create the appropriate separation between the University and each student-athlete’s pursuit of NIL opportunities.

“We are proud to innovate with Purdue in the NIL era,” said Fagan. “We’ve been engaging with Boilermaker supporters from our on-campus Fan Relationship Management Center for nearly five years. This new role serves as an extension of that external engagement, while supported internally on campus by the Purdue Athletics NIL Task Force. This integrated approach helped us identify the perfect leader in Jack Gallagher to lead this important initiative.”

Fagan provided further insight on this new position in his interview with Collegiate Sports Connect.

Prior to joining Aspire, Gallagher worked as the NIL Brand Development Assistant for Ohio University Athletics, coordinating all NIL needs between the athletic department and student-athletes.

“I could not be more excited to join Purdue and The Aspire Group to capitalize on all the potential that exists in the name, image, and likeness space for Boilermaker student-athletes,” said Gallagher. “Both Aspire and Purdue have shown tremendous commitment to NIL, and I knew from the moment the position opened, that this was where I wanted to be.”

Purdue University Athletics

Founded in 1869 and located in West Lafayette, Indiana, Purdue University is home to over 37,000 undergraduate students and 601 student-athletes. Purdue fields the following 18 intercollegiate athletic sports: baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s cross country, women’s cross country, football, men’s golf, women’s golf, women’s soccer, softball, men’s swimming & diving, women’s swimming & diving, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, men’s track & field, women’s track & field, women’s volleyball, and wrestling. The Boilermakers compete in the Big Ten Conference, the preeminent collection of institutions of higher education in the nation.

The Aspire Group

The Aspire Group is an award winning sports and entertainment marketing firm, named as a top employer in the industry by both Forbes and Front Office Sports. Globally recognized for innovative consulting, ticket sales, and partnership services, Aspire created the outsourced ticket sales niche, revolutionizing with its first Fan Relationship Management Center (FRMC) at Georgia Tech in 2009. Over the past 14 years, more than 280 collegiate and professional sports properties have trusted Aspire to drive revenue, attendance, and enterprise-value growth through the combination of strategic consulting and research, sales and service training, and best-in-industry fan relationship management.

For more information about The Aspire Group visit: www.theaspiregroupinc.com and follow us on Twitter @theaspire_group

For project and partnership inquiries, contact A.J. Smith at aj.smith@theaspiregroupinc.com or Joe Kronander at joe.kronander@theaspiregroupinc.com