Who Is Jon Palumbo?

With the change of heart from Guskiewicz and terms reached on the official Kentucky buyout of Batt, MSU moved quickly in naming Jon Palumbo as interim athletic director. The CEO of the newly launched Spartan Ventures will now have double duty as he maintains his CEO position and looks to appoint an individual to fill the athletic director position on the board. Palumbo is clearly a man with some vision and has moved quickly while at MSU.

Palumbo earned his B.A. in Communications from La Salle University and then got his M.B.A. in Marketing from La Salle as well. Upon graduating in 2003 he took on a position at William and Mary as the Athletics Business Manager. After getting his feet wet there for two and a half years managing a 12 million dollar budget he went to American University as an Associate Athletic Director. After two and a half years there he took the same position at Maryland where he stayed for four years. In 2012 he went to VCU and spent 6 years serving as Deputy Director of Athletics. It was at VCU that Palumbo started to work with donors and working to cultivate donors and major gifts. This had to play a part in his ideas for Spartan Ventures. After VCU he went to Texas A&M for four years as Director of Athletics and helped navigate them through COVID. He then went to Georgia Tech where he was the Executive Deputy Athletics Director and Chief Operating Officer, which is the same position he held at MSU until last week.

What is interesting in looking at Palumbo is the consistent cross over at places that he and J Batt had. Palumbo left William and Mary just a few months before Batt arrived. Palumbo was at Maryland a year before Batt arrived and they both were there for three years together as Batt was heading up the big donors and major gifts at Maryland. Batt ended up at Alabama while Palumbo went to VCU and A&M before they both reconnected at Georgia Tech. Batt held the position Palumbo had at Tech and MSU while he was in Alabama. Both men have spent a considerable amount of time magian donors, cultivating donors, getting annual donors and major gifts. It is interesting to see the comparison and MSU and Guskiewicz clearly are looking for uptake in donations and getting what they can out of a large alumni network and some alumni with very deep pockets.

Palumbo is married, Rachel, and has two dogs. While there is not much on his personal life to report on, I would say that is a good thing. He is definitely an individual who has done very well at all his stops and has managed to help bring updated facilities, donations, first time championships, sold out stadiums, etc. He seems to find success everywhere he has been and MSU, will hopefully be a benefactor of his magic touch. It will be interesting to watch how Spartan Ventures plays out and if his interim title inevitably becomes a permanent title. If he brings in money, better NIL management, improvements, and championships, he won’t hear many complaints from anyone in East Lansing.

What are your thoughts TOC on Palumbo and what might be in store at MSU? Let us know in the comments.