Now in his 5th year with the Gaucho Fund, Matt English serves as Senior Associate Athletics Director for Development. His primary focus is on major gifts for all sports within UCSB Athletics, including capital projects, endowments, annual giving and planned gifts. During his tenure with the department the Gaucho Fund has raised the three highest totals for a single fiscal year, including a record $10.2 million in 2018-19.
Prior to becoming a Gaucho, English was Director of Athletics at Concordia University, a NCAA Division II school in Portland, Oregon, with 15 sports and more than 300 student-athletes. He successfully led Concordia's application and acceptance to move from the NAIA to NCAA Division II. During his tenure the Cavaliers won seven straight Cascade Conference All-Sports titles and finished in the Top 20 of the Directors' Cup every year, including four Top 10 finishes. Concordia squads also won two national titles and made 57 national championship appearances. While at CU, he also helped lead a $7.5 million campaign to build Hilken Community Stadium, a multipurpose facility that served as home to the baseball and soccer teams. English was twice named Cascade Conference Athletic Director of the Year.
Before his time at Concordia, English worked for the University of Oregon's Duck Athletic Fund. He started as a graduate intern for the DAF, then became regional director of development and associate director of development for the fund before taking over as the interim executive director in June 2007. During English's tenure with the DAF, fundraising grew by more than 40 percent to $10.5 million.
A native Oregonian, English earned his B.A. in Business Finance from Seattle Pacific University and M.B.A. from the University of Oregon's Warsaw Sports Marketing Center for Sports Business. Matt and his wife, Selena, are proud to call Santa Barbara home and have a daughter, Emary, and a son, Elijah.
