CUNYAC Staff

Zak Ivkovic Appointed Executive Director of the CUNYAC

Bronx, NY - Zak Ivkovic was named as the Executive Director of the City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) by Dr. Otis Hill, CUNY’s Vice Chancellor for Students Development and Enrollment Management. Only the third commissioner in CUNYAC’s 18-year history, he succeeds his mentor, Ted Hurwitz, who retired after twelve years in the director’s chair in 2003. Ivkovic had been serving as the interim director of the organization this past year.

The most visible face of the City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) over the last fourteen years has been Zak Ivkovic. Since starting as the conference’s part-time sports information director in 1990, Ivkovic has continually added responsibility and rank. As the only conference in Division III with a senior college division and a junior college division, consisting of ten and five schools, respectively, Ivkovic has implemented most of the change that is evident today during his tenure as Assistant and later Associate Director over the past eleven seasons. He was responsible for operations at all 23 CUNYAC Championships and media relations, as seven championship events were added to the calendar, the CUNYAC website (www.cuny.edu/sports) was created and conference press releases and publications were elevated to the best in Division III and the New York City Metropolitan Area. Recently, Ivkovic has helped CUNYAC receive NCAA Grants totalling nearly $50,000, including being rewarded with a graduate assistant in the initial class of NCAA Women’s and Ethnic Minority Internship and various NCAA grants. He has also served on numerous NCAA and ECAC committees and coordinates the Division III Women’s Metropolitan Basketball Writer’s Association All-Star team. The last two summers, he has organized a Goodwill Tour for CUNYAC’s student-athletes. After a successful men’s basketball trip to the Dominican Republic in 2003, a group of women’s hoops stars traveled to Ecuador this past summer

“What impresses me most about Zak is that he has a plan for the direction he wants the conference to go in,” said CCNY Athletic Director Robert J. Coleman. “With hard work from the conference office I am certain his ideas will come to fruition. I feel one of his strongest attributes will be in corporate fundraising. He understands the importance of corporate sponsorships to the conference and he seems determined to succeed in this area.” A 1990 graduate of Mass Media at CUNY’s Hunter College, Ivkovic was born in Yugoslavia, emigrating to the Ridgewood, section of Queens with his family at the age of eleven. An All-Conference selection in soccer for four straight years, Ivkovic ranks as atop the Hunter single season (9) and career (20) shutout marks as a goalkeeper. Since his collegiate playing days, Ivkovic has played amateur league soccer and still finds time to coach a youth soccer team in Manhattan.

“I am pleased to have Zak as the new Executive Director of the CUNY Athletic Conference,” said Dr. Hill. “Zak’s experiences as a CUNY student athlete, a sports information director and as the associate director of the Conference bring the right combination of experience and expertise to the position. Furthermore, he has expanded he impact of CUNYAC far beyond its original expectations, and it is hopeful to see Zak thrive in an expanded role.”

In addition to his duties at CUNYAC the avid traveller and sports enthusiast has also worked for NBC Sports during the 2000 Sydney, 1996 Atlanta (where he earned an Emmy Award), and the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Ivkovic will have a similar role in Athens this August.