KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Mollie Marcoux Samaan, the Ford Family Director of Athletics at Princeton University, joins Women Leaders in College Sports Executive Director Patti Phillips to discuss collegiate athletics and more in the Women Leaders Podcast.
Among the top female student-athletes in Princeton University history and now a leader committed to striving for intercollegiate athletic success while remaining true to the core values of the institution and the department, Marcoux Samaan has overseen unprecedented growth.
During her first six years as Director of Athletics, Marcoux Samaan has overseen a department that has won 65 Ivy League championships, a total that is 14 more than the next-highest school in the league and 39 more than the third-best school during that time. Princeton reached double figures in Ivy League championships in each of her first five years before winning a league-best six in the shortened 2019-20 year that saw no spring championships awarded, and has been the highest ranked Ivy League school in the Directors’ Cup standings, measuring overall athletic success through National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship participation and success. Of the 37 Princeton varsity teams, a total of 27 have won at least one league championship during her tenure.
With all of the on-field success, perhaps her biggest contribution to the University came in the spring of 2020, as she guided the department through the extremely challenging and completely uncharted waters of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her calmness and focus kept the athletic department functioning at a high level and gave the teams, athletes and coaches a rallying point and direction during the most trying times.
Marcoux Samaan has taken the lead in the promotion of the optimal performance of the University’s nearly 1,000 varsity athletes each year, putting in place for them programs that enable them to reach their fullest potential as athletes, students and citizens.
Marcoux Samaan has also crafted a strategic plan for athletics that includes major improvements in facilities, a restructuring of the departmental organization, an increased emphasis on marketing and multimedia and a broad vision of the evolution of Princeton Athletics. She is committed to the well-rounded experience of the student-athlete that is summed up by her departmental motto of “Achieve, Serve, Lead” while also crafting and implementing an unwavering department-wide commitment to a well-defined series of values known as the “Be A Tiger” program.
Also in her first six years, she hired 14 new head coaches.
She has overseen numerous facility projects, including the installation of a “bubble” over Powers Field at Princeton Stadium for the winter months, a videoboard in Jadwin Gym that has completely upgraded the in-game experience for players and fans, the renovation of the Jadwin Gym lobby to showcase the overwhelming history and success of Princeton Athletics and the construction of the state-of-the-art Levine Broadcast Center to revolutionize the department’s multimedia efforts.
Marcoux Samaan graduated cum laude from Princeton in 1991 after majoring in history and writing her thesis on the history of women in sports from 1895 to 1946. She was a two-sport varsity athlete, earning four letters each in soccer and ice hockey. As a varsity ice hockey player, she was named Ivy League rookie of the year in 1988, earned first-team all-Ivy honors four times, was named the team’s most valuable player three times, was elected team captain her senior year, was a first team all-Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) selection and a member of the ECAC team of the decade, and in 1999 she was named to the Ivy League’s silver anniversary ice hockey team. When she graduated she was Princeton’s all-time leading scorer and she still ranks first in most goals in a season with 35. She also earned second-team all-Ivy honors in soccer in 1987.
As a senior Marcoux Samaan was awarded the C. Otto von Kienbusch Sportswoman of the Year Award for “high scholastic rank, sportsmanship and general excellence in athletics” and the Patty Kazmaier Award as the member of the ice hockey team who made the greatest contribution to the program and exemplified such characteristics as “loyalty …, determination and perseverance under adverse conditions.”
Following graduation, Marcoux Samaan served as assistant athletic director, assistant dean of admissions, assistant housemaster and coach of girls’ ice hockey and soccer at the Lawrenceville School. In her honor Lawrenceville established the Mollie Marcoux Award to recognize the female hockey player who best exemplifies excellence in athletics and academics.
Marcoux Samaan began her 19-year career with Chelsea Piers Management, the company that owns and operates two world-class amateur sports complexes, Chelsea Piers New York and Chelsea Piers Connecticut, when its first facility opened in 1995. She quickly moved into senior management positions, becoming first vice president for strategic planning and general manager for the Piers’ largest sports venue. In these roles she managed hundreds of employees (including senior directors, managers and high-level coaches) and developed extensive and cutting-edge sports programming for athletes of all ages and abilities. She founded and served as executive director of the Chelsea Piers Scholarship Fund, which since its inception has provided more than 2,000 scholarships to make athletic opportunities available to children in need. Most recently she has served as executive vice president and executive director of Chelsea Piers’ 400,000-square-foot multi-venue sports complex in Connecticut, a facility with 375 employees, including a number of highly ranked professional athletes, Olympians, former collegiate coaches, former Ivy League and Division I athletes and sports industry leaders.
Marcoux Samaan and her husband, Andrew Samaan, are the parents of three children: Maddie, Catie and Drew.
