TicketsTom Symonds, a veteran with over 20 years of experience in various roles within intercollegiate and professional athletics, joined the UCATS staff in October 2026.
Prior to his arrival at Cincinnati, Symonds, a native of Medina, Ohio, served as the Associate Athletics Director for Major Gifts with the Charlotte Athletics Foundation staff - a role he began in January 2025.
During his tenure with the 49ers, Symonds generated over $600,000 in new philanthropic commitments. He also played a key role in launching the Shareholders Society, which resulted in over $6 million dollars in pledges toward Charlotte Athletics. In addition, Symonds assisted with the premium seating sales efforts in the Jerry Richardson Stadium expansion project. He also helped orchestrate a record-breaking Cash-In-The-Door total of over $23 million during the 2025 fiscal year.
Before his stint at Charlotte, Symonds, served as the Assistant Athletic Director for Development at the University at Buffalo for three years. During his tenure in Buffalo, Symonds served as a member of the department’s external operations team. He also managed the department’s major gift fundraising and stewardship efforts in the New York City, Washington D.C., Atlanta, and South Florida areas. In the 2023 fiscal year, Symonds was part of a team that raised over $4.3 million in cash collections – a department record for cash collections in a year.
From 2018-22, Symonds served as the Assistant Athletic Director for Strategic Communications at Tulane University. In this role, Symonds helped increase the brand recognition of Tulane Athletics, while serving as a key member of the department's external relations team. His initiatives at Tulane also included collaborations with Sprout Social and INFLCR web technologies, which resulted in a 394% increase in social media engagements.
His final role at Tulane prior to joining the Buffalo staff was full-time was serving as the media coordinator for the 2022 NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four in New Orleans.
Prior to joining Tulane, Symonds was the Assistant Athletic Director for Communications at the University of Miami (Fla.) from 2014-18 where he oversaw and managed the media relations efforts for the Miami Hurricanes football program, while also serving as the departmental spokesman.
Symonds arrived at Miami after three seasons (2011-2014) at Ohio University, where he held the position of Assistant AD for Media Relations and was the primary spokesman on all department matters and served as the primary football contact.
Prior to Ohio, Symonds spent three seasons at the University of Rhode Island where he served as the sports communications contact for football, volleyball, rowing and softball, while also maintaining the athletic department's official website, GoRhody.com
A 2005 graduate of The Ohio State University, Symonds has also made stops with the Detroit Lions, the BIG EAST Conference and the Horizon League. He earned his master's in sports administration from Ohio University in May 2014. In addition, Symonds serves as an adjunct professor at Queens University.
Symonds and his wife Jessi (a Cincinnati native) welcomed their first-born son Benji in February of 2022. The family also has a dog named Max.