The California women’s basketball program has hired Christian Trigg as its Director of Brand Development, head coach Charmin Smith announced. Trigg will be responsible for helping to meet the development, branding and student-athlete objectives of the team’s Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) goals in the newly-created position. He will additionally lead student-athlete development toward post-graduate career goals and assist with recruiting efforts.
“Having a strong NIL presence is critical in today’s college athletics environment,” Smith said. “I’m excited to add Christian to our staff and have someone who will be focused on increasing NIL opportunities for our student-athletes as well as help them plan for their careers and set them up for success beyond Cal.”
Trigg brings a strong background in business development, having spent stints with professional sports teams and globally-recognized brands. He joins the Golden Bears after having served as a senior sales consultant with the San Francisco 49ers where he generated over $3 million in corporate suite and hospitality revenue and trained a team of account executives that led to over $6 million in premium seat revenue. He also developed the 49ers Black employee resource group and helped inspire their “Beyond Football” program in partnership with San Jose State, which exposes student-athletes to opportunities for after graduation.
Trigg was also an NIL consultant with sports and entertainment management firm CooperConnextion Entertainment, where he secured deals for student-athletes, partnering with brands such as Coach, BrightLightz, and Protein2o.
“I am elated to be joining Cal Women’s Basketball and look forward to helping our student-athletes build their personal brands, secure authentic partnerships and grow both personally and professionally,” Trigg said. “My goal is to create a sustainable organization to make Cal Women’s Basketball a premier program for NIL opportunities.”
He previously spent time at Nike headquarters in Oregon where he worked with the business analytics team to present strategic opportunities to grow the brand in several international markets, developed marketing initiatives for the upcoming FIBA World Cup and Paris Olympics with former pro basketball players and worked on marketing integrations with the Women’s World Cup and WNBA/NBA Finals.
Trigg most recently earned his MBA from Cal’s Haas School of Business where he served as a graduate student instructor focusing on student-athlete personal branding. He owns a bachelor’s in sales and marketing from Tuskegee University.
