Mark Dienhart (born October 11, 1953) is an American educational administrator who is the former Senior Vice President at the University of St. Thomas. He was the men's

athletic director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches an ...

at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

from 1995 to 2000. He is currently the President and CEO of the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation. Dienhart attended DeLaSalle High School in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

and was a multi-sport athlete in college at St. Thomas. He was the Division III National Champion in the shot put at St. Thomas, the first individual national championship in school history. He was an offensive lineman on the football team and was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the

1975 NFL Draft The 1975 National Football League draft was held January 28–29, 1975, at the New York Hilton at Rockefeller Center in New York City, New York. With the first overall pick of the draft, the Atlanta Falcons selected quarterback Steve Bartkows ...

. Dienhart coached football and track at St. Thomas from 1981 to 1986 and led the Tommies to the 1985 Division III Indoor National Championship. Dienhart served as the

Minnesota Golden Gophers The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 25 (12 men's, 13 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and competes in the Big Te ...

men's athletics director from 1995 until 2000, when his contract was not renewed following the

academic scandal Academic dishonesty, academic misconduct, academic fraud and academic integrity are related concepts that refer to various actions on the part of students that go against the expected norms of a school, university or other learning institution. ...

in the men's basketball program under head coach

Clem Haskins Clem Smith Haskins (born August 11, 1943) is an American former college and professional basketball player and college basketball coach. In the fall of 1963, he and fellow star player Dwight Smith became the first black athletes to integrate the W ...

. Dienhart joined the administration at St. Thomas in 2001. At St. Thomas, Dienhart was in charge of increasing the university's endowment."Mark Dienhart is no stranger to academia."

KSTP-TV KSTP-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, serving the Twin Cities area as an affiliate of ABC. It is the flagship television property of locally based Hubbard Broadcasting, which has owned the ...

, July 8, 2008. http://kstp.com/article/stories/S498188.shtml?cat=173 Access date August 12, 2008. On June 17, 2013, St. Thomas reported Dienhart will be leaving the institution to become President and Chief Executive Officer of the Schulze Family Foundation, created by Best Buy founder and University of St. Thomas trustee, Dick Schulze. The following day, Dick Schulze announced his intention to expand the size of the foundation from $100 million to $1 billion.

References

1953 births Living people American football offensive tackles Minnesota Golden Gophers athletic directors St. Thomas (Minnesota) Tommies football coaches St. Thomas (Minnesota) Tommies football players College men's track and field athletes in the United States College track and field coaches in the United States Track and field athletes from Minneapolis DeLaSalle High School (Minneapolis) alumni Sports coaches from Minneapolis Players of American football from Minneapolis {{UMinnesota-stub