BOSTON – Northeastern University has named Tim Duncan to lead its external affairs unit. Duncan brings more than 10 years of experience as an athletics administrator and another decade in the corporate sector, most recently as director of athletics at Clayton State University. He will have a functional title of Deputy Athletic Director for External Affairs and begin his tenure at Northeastern on May 1.
 
Northeastern will hold a Twitter question and answer session with Duncan on Thursday from 3 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tweet your question ahead of time at @GoNUathletics using the hashtags AskDuncan and HowlinHuskies. For those not on Twitter, you can submit your question by visiting GoNU.com/AskDuncan.
 
"We're very fortunate and excited to have Tim join our staff and lead our external affairs team," said Konya. "Tim has accomplished a great deal in several critical roles throughout his career, and brings a wide array of expertise in several crucial areas. His forward-thinking and progressive approach will greatly benefit our athletic department.
 
"I've known Tim for a long time, and have no doubt that he will seamlessly integrate himself into the culture that we are building at Northeastern. Tim is focused on building an infrastructure of success both athletically and academically that will enhance the student-athlete experience that we are all steadfastly committed to providing for every member of the Howlin' Huskies."
 
At Northeastern, Duncan will oversee all aspects of Northeastern's external affairs unit, which includes communications, development, marketing and promotions, ticketing and video production.
 
"I am thrilled for the tremendous opportunity to lead the external affairs team at Northeastern in one of the largest media markets in the nation," Duncan said, "and am thankful to Jeff Konya for trusting in me to lead this charge. This is an exciting time to be at Northeastern, and I can't wait to get started as we work together on behalf of our immensely talented student-athletes, dedicated coaches, and loyal alumni and fans."
 
Under Duncan's leadership at Clayton State, which began in 2014, the Lakers saw unprecedented success at the conference, regional and national level. Student-athletes have been recognized for their work in the classroom by the Peach Belt Conference and earned more than half of the program's CoSIDA Academic All-District selections (seven) since 2015.
 
In his four years at Clayton State, the Lakers captured back-to-back Peach Belt Conference (PBC) regular season championships in men's basketball, including a 14-game winning streak resulting in the program's first NCAA appearance in 10 years, back-to-back NCAA Division II Tournament appearances for women's basketball in 2016 and 2017, consecutive individual NCAA berths for men's golf (2016 and 2017) and a women's soccer program that made its 16th PBC Tournament appearance in the last 17 years, all under the guidance of head coaches hired by Duncan.
 
As the primary development officer, Duncan also developed Laker Sports Marketing, the Department's fundraising arm. In 2016, he secured the largest gift in the history of Clayton State Athletics as OrthoAtlanta donated $60,000 for naming rights for a new athletic training room facility. He and his team also increased all streams of revenue by at least 35% in fundraising cash (52%), ticket sales (47%) and number of donors (42%).
 
In his first opportunity to lead an athletics department, Duncan oversaw an 11-sport program at Division II Paine College.He dramatically improved the academic profile of Lion student-athletes during his three years in Augusta, seeing a 40% increase in those individuals earning at least a 3.0 grade point average. He also revitalized Paine's athletic fundraising, securing nearly $100,000 in donations for the Lucy C. Laney/Silas X. Floyd Wellness Center and the football locker room, and secured the institution's first licensing agreement.
 
Prior to the move to Paine, Duncan spent two years at UNCW as the associate athletics director and executive director of the Seahawk Club. During his time there he earned a promotion and promptly re-secured a $500,000 gift and a new $50,000 gift within the first month of his new responsibilities. He also cultivated and solicited a $250,000 gift for improvements to Trask Coliseum in his new role while managing relationships with approximately 50 to 100 individuals that could serve as major donors.
 
Duncan began his career in intercollegiate athletics administration at his alma mater as he was named executive director of the M Club in 2007. There, he was responsible for strategic planning, budget planning and management, program development and assessment and marketing research and public relations for Athletic Alumni that included more than 2,500 former letterwinners.Among his accomplishments in that role was securing the single largest donation from a former student-athlete. That came in the form of a $1 million Hall of Fame naming rights agreement with 14-year NBA veteran, and former Duncan teammate, Penny Hardaway.
 
In the corporate world, Duncan served as the primary new business development officer at PRStore in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee from 2006 to 2007. He was also responsible for devising marketing strategies that would enable small business owners to reach their target. Duncan also made corporate stops at Infrared Marketing (2003-08) and RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company (1998-03) and the Russell Corporation (1996-98).
 
Duncan also has extensive committee experience at the national level, including the NCAA Men's Soccer Regional Advisory Committee (2015-17), NCAA Pathways Mentor (2015 and 2017), NCAA Division II Athletic Director Association Member (2015) and NCAA Career in Sports Forum Facilitator (2014).
 
Duncan earned his Bachelor's in Business Administration (Marketing concentration) from Memphis State (now the University of Memphis) where he was a four-year member of the men's basketball team. During his collegiate career, the Tigers made two trips to the NCAA tournament, including a run to the Elite Eight in 1992, and a pair of invitations to the NIT. He went on to complete his Master of Science in Sports Administration at Grambling State in 1997.
 
Duncan is married to the former Ms. Lisa Farris. The couple has five children, Lisa (27), Torin (26), Tyson (16), Turner (12) and Tatum (10).