Adrien Bouchet has been named the Richard & Helen DeVos Foundation Endowed Chair and Eminent Scholar of the DeVos Sport Business Management Program at UCF. Bouchet joined UCF last year as director of the globally ranked DeVos Sport Business Management Program following the retirement of sports industry pioneer, activist and program founder Richard Lapchick to focus his work on leading the Institute for Sport and Social Justice.
“Today we complete the transition of the academic leadership of the Sports Business Management program at UCF to Adrien Bouchet,” says Paul Jarley, dean of UCF College of Business, which houses the DeVos program. “In his first year with us, Dr. Bouchet has demonstrated the kind of academic leadership and industry savvy that has been the hallmark of the DeVos program’s success. I have full confidence in Adrien’s ability to keep the College, and UCF at large, on the forefront of creating the next generation of leaders in managing sports enterprises.”
Bouchet will keynote the college’s Dean’s Speaker Series: “What’s Next for the Big Business of College Sports?” on Wednesday, Sept. 27, at the Citrus Club in Orlando. Register here.
Before joining UCF, Bouchet was the Warren Clinic Endowed Professor of Sport Business at the University of Tulsa. He was a Fulbright Fellow (Portugal) and a Research Fellow at the North American Society for Sport Management. In 2015, he received the MAYO Excellence in Research award from the University of Tulsa. He and a co-author were awarded a Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics grant to study the escalation in spending in NCAA athletics, and their conference paper was the basis of an article on ESPN.com. Prior to entering academia, he served as the manager of marketing partnerships for the NFL’s Miami Dolphins and the senior manager of marketing partnerships for MLB’s Miami Marlins. He also worked for SFX/Clear Channel Entertainment (now LiveNation) and ISP/Learfield College Sports.
“About 20 years ago, the DeVos family endowed us with a gift to establish a world class sport business management program, and our goal is to continue to be the global talent provider for the sport and entertainment industry,” says Bouchet, who also serves as director of The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES), which releases the widely publicized Racial and Gender Report Cards for professional, collegiate and amateur sports each year. “We strive to be an inspiring place to get an education and gain industry experience.”
Over the years, DeVos has been recognized as a top Sports Business Program in America by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Forbes magazine. The program was ranked eighth in the world by SportBusiness in its Postgraduate Rankings 2022. The DeVos program offers students the opportunity to earn their master’s in sports business management and an MBA. A minor is also available for undergraduates.
