Wesley Mallette

Wesley Mallette was named Deputy Athletics Director and Chief Marketing Officer for South Carolina Athletics on July 30, 2025. Mallette came to South Carolina from the University of California, Riverside, where he served as the school’s athletics director for the previous five years.

In his role for the Gamecocks, Mallette is responsible for leading strategy and operations for multiple external functions including branding, creative media, marketing, fan experience, communications, video content, digital strategy, trademark licensing, broadcast and live productions; and provides oversight for Athletics’ multimedia rights partnership. In addition, Mallette is currently helping lead multiple areas leading into South Carolina Athletics shoe and apparel brand transition to Nike on July 1, 2026.

Prior to South Carolina, Mallette served in two roles at UC Riverside. First, as Senior Associate AD of External Relations and Chief of Staff from 2018 to 2020. Then, in January 2021, he was elevated to Athletics Director for the Highlanders after successfully guiding the program through its biggest crisis in its 25-year history at the Division I level – the threat of an entire Athletics program elimination during the COVID-19 pandemic. Highlighting his time as AD, Mallette helped elevate the UCR Athletics brand by securing a new shoe and apparel deal with Nike/BSN SPORTS, changed the brand’s narrative, and led Athletics through a wildly successful and comprehensive visual identification brand redesign. UCR Athletics also experienced its best fundraising year ever in 2024-25 and tallied four of its top five fundraising years in more than a decade. Mallette’s leadership with the men’s basketball program earned him distinction as one of the nation’s top 100 most influential people in men’s college basketball by Silver Waves Media in both 2023 and 2024, after helping lift the team to the third best record in The Big West Conference during his five years as AD.

Before joining UC Riverside, Mallette served as Associate AD for Strategic Communications with Cal Athletics (UC Berkeley) where he oversaw all internal and external strategic communications and brand marketing efforts while guiding Cal Athletics through multiple crises and issues. Following three successful years with the Golden Bears, he went on to serve as VP of Communications for Pac-12 Networks.

For more than two decades, Mallette has created and conducted media/brand development trainings entitled “Building & Protecting Your Brand in the Digital Age,” for thousands of high school, college, Olympic, and professional athletes across the country. Based on a custom curriculum he created, developed, and adapted accordingly, this specialized, interactive workshop is designed to successfully provide traditional and social media and brand development training for athletes at all levels.

Prior to his career in collegiate and professional athletics, Mallette spent nearly 15 years in senior communications and marketing roles with MTV Networks, L Brands Inc.’s Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works, Black Entertainment Television, Inc. (BET), and an advertising agency.

Mallette holds a B.A. in Communications from James Madison University, where he was a two-sport Division I student-athlete in football and track and field. He earned his M.A. in Journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Mallette is married to the former Melody Stockwell, a seasoned athletics professional with more than two decades of experience in intercollegiate athletics administration. His son, Houston, recently completed an outstanding career as men’s basketball student-athlete (and two-time All SEC Community Service Team) at the University of Alabama, following a stellar career at Pepperdine (where he was a three-time All-WCC selection and two-time team captain). His daughter, Soledad, is a sophomore student-athlete and member of the Huskies’ 2026 girls basketball CIF state championship team at Corona Centennial High School in Southern California.