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EXCLUSIVE: Two of Yale’s top athletic officials bought a house together a year before one of them was hired by the university, a deed obtained by Pakinomist Digital shows. Former colleagues have claimed that the two officials are in a romantic relationship, alleging that a former administrator was pressured to resign to vacate a position for one of the partners.
Yale Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer of Athletics Ann-Marie Guglieri and Vice President of Athletics Mary Berdo, who are the second and third top officials in the athletics department under Director of Athletics Victoria Chun, bought a house together in Milford, Conn., in June 2018, the deed shows. Berdo was then hired by the university in April 2019.
Chun, Guglieri and Berdo previously worked together in Colgate University’s athletic department. Yale’s then-president named Chun as athletics director in February 2018, and she joined Yale in July 2018. Guglieri started the same month.
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Over 54,000 fill the Yale Bowl for the second half of the 141st play of “The Game” between the Yale Bulldogs and the Harvard Crimson on November 22, 2025 in New Haven, Connecticut. (Sean D. Elliot/Getty Images)
Two former Yale athletic department employees have alleged that Guglieri and Berdo are in a romantic relationship. Additional former employees have alleged that a former administrator was pressured to accept a voluntary retirement package, which then created an opening for Berdo.
Guglieri and Berdo’s relationship does not appear to violate Yale’s workplace policies, which state: “Staff are expected to avoid romantic or sexual relationships with employees and interns for whom they have or may reasonably expect to have supervisory or reporting responsibilities.”
A Yale athletics organizational chart obtained by Pakinomist Digital, created some time after 2019, shows that Berdo and Guglieri do not have a reporting or supervisory relationship with each other. Instead, both report directly to Chun.
Although the relationship is not against Yale policy, one former Yale coach believed it is “completely unprofessional” for two people in leadership roles in the athletics department “to be in a relationship with each other.”
The former coach told Pakinomist Digital on condition of anonymity that it was “well known” in the department that Guglieri and Berdo were “a couple,” although “they didn’t make it obvious.” He said they “came as a packaged deal.”
A former Yale athletic administrator told Pakinomist Digital on condition of anonymity that the relationship was “common knowledge” in the athletic department.
Two former employees said the athletic department could not increase its headcount to hire Berdo at the same time it hired Guglieri. But Pakinomist Digital learned that a former athletic department administrator reluctantly accepted a voluntary retirement package, and Berdo was hired soon after.
The former senior associate athletic director was reportedly given “no choice” but to accept the voluntary retirement package in the fall of 2018, which created a vacancy in the department’s front office prior to Berdo’s hiring, according to a former Yale Athletics employee with first-hand knowledge of the situation.
“A senior associate athletic director was called in October 2018 and pressured to accept a retirement package, and that person had no choice but to take that retirement package and give 90 days’ notice, and right after the 90 days’ notice, Mary Berdo was hired,” the former employee said.
Former Yale men’s hockey head coach Keith Allain told Pakinomist Digital that the former employee’s recollection of the forced retirement and eventual hiring of Berdo is consistent with what he had been told by individuals in the athletic department. Allain declined further comment.
Yale fans watch their team lose during Harvard vs Yale, College Football, Ivy League’s deciding game, Harvard Stadium, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. 22 November 2014. Photo Tim Clayton (Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)
Sources Pakinomist Digital spoke to did not say Guglieri participated in the selection process for Berdo. But one said there was “a big question mark about the convenient hiring of Mary Berdo, also from Colgate,” and whether the process was completely objective.
While Yale declined to comment “on individual personnel matters,” a spokesperson for the university president’s office told Pakinomist Digital, “We can confirm that Yale has a robust set of personnel and disclosure policies that it followed.”
Prior to coming to Yale, Berdo was the senior associate athletic director at Colgate University and a member of the department’s senior leadership staff. She previously worked at the NCAA National Headquarters and as the Assistant Director of Events and Championships at the University of Michigan. She played basketball for the University of Iowa.
“Vicky was only able to bring one instructor, Ann-Marie, with her at the start of her Yale tenure,” another former Yale Athletics employee told Pakinomist Digital on condition of anonymity.
The employee said he had left Yale when Berdo was hired, but questioned whether the process may have involved “preferential treatment” since “Mary’s hiring appeared to be predetermined a year in advance.”
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Pakinomist Digital has reached out to Guglieri and Berdo through their university email addresses and to an email address believed to belong to Chun, but has not received a response.
Pakinomist Digital has verified the identities of the former employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity, and that they worked at Yale during the time frames listed. Other sources contacted by Pakinomist Digital did not dispute or contradict any of the above claims.
Former Yale coaches have had issues with the current leadership
Head coach Keith Allain of the United States during practice before the 2011 IIHF World U20 Championship Group A match between the United States and Finland on December 26, 2010 at HSBC Arena in Buffalo, New York. (Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
A letter signed by Allain addressed to Yale President Maurie McInnis alleged that Chun has created a “toxic environment” for the university’s sports teams.
Pakinomist Digital published the letter last Monday after confirming with Allain that he emailed the letter to McInnis in October, shortly after his retirement.
“I am writing to you at the request of several head coaches in our athletic department. They told me that you asked for feedback from a few coaches regarding the contract extension of our athletic director and are concerned that with the culture of fear that permeates the athletic department, you will not receive honest feedback,” the letter began.
The letter later wrote: “Vicky’s unique talent is self-promotion and has created a toxic environment in the department where she is isolated by a cadre of administrators whose main job seems to be to silence all dissent,” the letter continued.
Newman’s attorney did not claim that either Chun or Guglieri were responsible for making the recording.
The letter — sent approximately four years after Newsman’s departure from the university in 2021 — requested a “settlement dialogue, including both financial and non-financial terms.” Newman has not taken legal action against Yale or any representatives of Yale, and Pakinomist Digital does not know if the parties have settled their dispute.
As part of the correspondence, a former vice president of Yale confirmed to Granovsky: “A former employee recorded part of a meeting with your client without the university’s knowledge.” The attorney for Yale denied various other claims made by Granovsky.
A subsequent letter states that Yale later provided a copy of an audio file to Granovsky on October 28, 2025. Granovsky responded on November 17 with questions about the recording, noting that Yale policy prohibits “secret” recordings.
The current version of Yale’s admissions policy, which took effect in 2024, states: “Except with the permission of University personnel, participants in meetings related to employment or academic or recreational activities may not record such meetings without the permission of all participants.”
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Pakinomist Digital cannot confirm whether any additional letters have been exchanged between Newman’s attorneys and Yale representatives.
A source provided copies of the letter and email exchange between Granovsky and Yale to Pakinomist Digital, and Newman confirmed their authenticity.
