As Columbia’s Associate Athletics Director for Strategic Communications, Alex Oberweger '92CC '01BUS is responsible for the creation and development of numerous media initiatives on behalf of the intercollegiate athletics program. He works closely with athletics leadership and university colleagues on strategic projects and media initiatives, as well as overall Department brand management.
Over the past two decades, Oberweger has been an integral part of the renaissance of the Columbia Athletics program. Starting in 2005, Oberweger compiled and co-authored the Strategic Plan for the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and Physical Education, a comprehensive document outlining mission critical investments required to improve Columbia’s performance in competitive NCAA Division I athletics. Since the creation and adoption of The Strategic Plan, the University and athletics program have rebuilt the Baker Athletics Complex, launched new efforts in external outreach and fundraising, and initiated the most successful two decades of performance on the fields and courts of play.
Hired as Associate Athletics Director for Athletics Communications in August 2005, after serving for seven months as a strategic planning consultant, Oberweger was a driving force behind the re-launch of the official Columbia Athletics website, www.gocolumbialions.com in July 2006, as well as the development, planning and implementation of new branding initiatives for Columbia University Athletics. In 2007 and 2008, he was responsible for the athletics event operations, including ticket and gameday event management, including the development of electronic ticket purchasing systems, and was instrumental in developing event operations protocol for home football and basketball events at Columbia.
Over the past 20 years, Oberweger has also served as the coordinating producer for signature athletics fan and alumni events. He has been involved with the development of the Columbia Athletics Hall of Fame from the planning stages to the execution of the black tie event, including the research, writing and production of the awards ceremony. He was also instrumental in the production of numerous other special events, from the Columbia 250 Closing Ceremonies at Homecoming 2004 and the launch of the Columbia Campaign for Athletics in 2007 to the Dedication of the Campbell Sports Center in 2012.
From 2011 to 2015 Oberweger served as Chair of the Ivy League Digital Strategy Committee and wrote the business plan for the (then) Ivy League Digital Network, which launched in August 2013, and paved the way for the Ivy League’s current ten-year digital broadcast rights agreement with ESPN.
In 2017, Oberweger helped negotiate and launch Columbia’s broadcast coverage on regional sports network Sportsnet New York (SNY). He has served as senior coordinating producer of all Columbia-produced events for broadcast television and internet networks, as well as Ivy League Championship events originating from Columbia, including the shoulder programming of the 2024 Ivy League Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments. He is the primary liaison for the athletics program when television networks originate broadcasts from Columbia venues.
A 1992 graduate of Columbia College, Oberweger also holds graduate degrees from Columbia Business School and the Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University. As an undergraduate, he was an award-winning broadcaster of Columbia athletics events on the student radio station, WKCR-FM, and served as public address announcer at Columbia football and basketball contests from 1998 to 2005. He can occasionally be heard as a fill-in play-by-play announcer on ESPN+ when Columbia's primary announcers are on other assignments.
Oberweger worked in sports television, principally at ESPN and Madison Square Garden, as well in retail and wholesale management with The Home Depot and international trading company Seymour Mann, Inc., before returning to Columbia in 2004 as associate director of Columbia250, the year-long celebration of the University’s 250th anniversary. A native New Yorker, he and his wife Caroline '06TC live in Manhattan, with their daughter, Natalie and son, Samuel.
