WILLIAMSBURG — William & Mary Athletics announced the hiring of Brandon Cates as the Tribe’s associate athletic director for business affairs. Cates comes to Williamsburg from the University of Pittsburgh and has 18 years of experience in business operations.
In his role with the Tribe, Cates will be responsible for developing & managing the athletic department’s overall budget. In addition, he will be in charge of financial projections and forecasting and providing insights to optimize financial performance and resource utilization in the short term and long term.
“I’m excited to be a new member of the Tribe! The tradition, culture, and excellence of both academics and athletics makes this a tremendous opportunity and one that I do not take lightly,” Cates said. “I look forward to working with our teams and staff in continuing to provide excellence for our student-athletes here at William & Mary.”
Most recently, Cates served as the director of business services at Pittsburgh. During his time with the Panthers, he was responsible for satisfying the financial reporting and analytical requirements of the athletic department and assisting with budgeting. He completed a number of mandated financial reports, including the Federal EADA Report, NCAA/AUP Report, Private Business Use Questionnaire, Economic Impact Report, and ACC Financial Survey.
Prior to his time in Pittsburgh, Cates was the associate director of business operations at the University of Maryland for two years from 2021-23. He served as the primary accounting contact for baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, field hockey, men’s and women’s golf, gymnastics, men’s and women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s soccer, women’s tennis, men’s and women’s track and cross country, and wrestling. During his time in College Park, he performed monthly reconciliations and journal entries and executed the department’s working fund.
Cates started his collegiate athletics career as the athletic business coordinator at Howard University from 2019-21. He created and maintained requisitions, obtained purchase orders, and formulated budgets for sports. Cates also assisted in preparing the annual Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA) report and oversaw all online and on-site ticket sales and operations.
Cates spent eight years working on the corporate side before moving into collegiate athletics. He served as the branch manager at Enterprise Rent-A-Car for five years (2007-12), managing a team of five in fleet acquisition and reconciliation totaling over $1.6 million. Cates was also the property accountant for Dittmar Company in Northern Virginia for three years. He managed and oversaw record keeping for over 800 residential units valued at $1.7 million.
Cates earned his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in American Studies in 2007. He received his master’s in sports management at Drexel in 2014.
