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EXCLUSIVE: Two of Yale’s top athletic officials bought a house together a year before either of them was hired by the university, a move obtained by PK Press Club Digital broadcasts. Former colleagues claimed the two officials had a romantic relationship and alleged that a former administrator was pressured into retirement to free up the position of one of the partners.
Ann-Marie Guglieri, executive assistant director and director of operations for Yale athletics, and Mary Berdo, assistant director of athletics, who hold the second and third highest-ranked positions in the athletic department under Athletic Director Victoria Chun, purchased a home together in Milford, Connecticut, in June 2018, according to the deed. Berdo was then hired by the university in April 2019.
Chun, Guglieri and Berdo previously worked together in the Colgate University athletic department. Yale’s president at the time named Chun athletics director in February 2018, and she joined Yale in July 2018. Guglieri started the same month.
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More than 54,000 people fill the Yale Bowl for the second half of the 141st game 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 employees of the Yale athletic department claimed that Guglieri and Berdo had a romantic relationship. Other former employees alleged that a former administrator was pressured into accepting a voluntary retirement program, which then created an opening for Berdo.
The relationship between Guglieri and Berdo 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 could reasonably be expected to have supervisory or reporting responsibilities.” »
A Yale athletic organizational chart obtained by PK Press Club Digital, created sometime 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 this relationship did not violate Yale policy, a former Yale coach felt it was “completely unprofessional” for two people with leadership roles in the athletics department to “be in a relationship with each other.”
The former coach told PK Press Club Digital, on condition of anonymity, that it was “well known” in the department that Guglieri and Berdo were “a couple”, although they “didn’t say it clearly”. He said they “came as a package deal.”
A former Yale athletic administrator told PK Press Club Digital on condition of anonymity that the relationship was “widely known” within the athletic department.
Two former employees said the athletic department couldn’t increase staffing to hire Berdo at the same time it hired Guglieri. But PK Press Club Digital has learned that a former athletic department administrator reluctantly agreed to a voluntary retirement package, and then Berdo was hired shortly after.
The former senior associate athletic director reportedly had “no choice” but to accept the voluntary retirement package in fall 2018, creating a vacancy in the department’s front office prior to Berdo’s hiring, according to a former Yale Athletics employee with direct knowledge of the situation.
“A senior associate athletic director was called in October 2018 and pressured to accept a retirement package, and this person had no choice but to accept 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 PK Press Club Digital that the former employee’s memories of the pressured retirement and eventual hiring of Berdo are consistent with what he was told by people within the athletic department. Allain declined further comment.
Yale fans watch their sides lose during the Harvard v Yale decider game, College football, Ivy League, Harvard Stadium, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. November 22, 2014. Photo Tim Clayton (Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)
Sources PK Press Club Digital spoke to did not say Guglieri participated in Berdo’s selection process. But one said there was “a huge question mark over the timely 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’s office of the president told PK Press Club Digital: “We can confirm that Yale has followed a robust set of personnel and disclosure policies.” »
Before joining Yale, Berdo was assistant athletic director at Colgate University and a member of the department’s senior leadership. She previously worked at the NCAA National Headquarters and as 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 director, Ann-Marie, with her early in her tenure at Yale,” another former Yale Athletics employee told PK Press Club Digital on condition of anonymity.
The employee said he left Yale around the time Berdo was hired, but questioned whether the process may have involved “preferential treatment” because Mary’s “hiring seemed to be predetermined a year in advance.”
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PK Press Club Digital contacted Guglieri and Berdo through their university email addresses and an email address believed to belong to Chun, but received no response.
PK Press Club Digital verified the identities of the former employees who spoke on condition of anonymity and that they worked at Yale within the specified time frame. Other sources contacted by PK Press Club Digital have neither disputed nor contradicted any of the above allegations.
Former Yale coaches have had issues with current management
Head coach Keith Allain of the United States during practice before the 2011 IIHF U20 World Championship 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 to Yale President Maurie McInnis alleged that Chun created a “toxic environment” for the university’s sports teams.
PK Press Club 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 have told me that you are seeking feedback from a few coaches regarding our athletic director’s contract extension and that you are concerned that with the culture of fear that permeates the athletic department, you will not receive candid feedback,” the letter begins.
The letter later wrote: “Vicky’s singular talent is her self-promotion and has created a toxic environment within the department where she is isolated by a cadre of administrators whose primary task appears to be to silence all dissent,” the letter continued.
Newman’s attorney did not assert that Chun or Guglieri were responsible for making the recording.
The letter – sent approximately four years after Newsman left the university in 2021 – requested a “settlement dialogue, including both financial and non-financial terms.” Newman has not filed any legal action against Yale or any representative of Yale, and PK Press Club Digital does not know whether the parties have settled their dispute.
As part of the letter exchange, a former Yale deputy general counsel confirmed to Granovsky: “A former employee recorded part of a meeting with your client, without the university’s knowledge.” Yale’s attorney denied various other allegations made by Granovsky.
A subsequent letter states that Yale then provided a copy of an audio file to Granovsky on October 28, 2025. Granovsky responded on November 17 with questions about the recording and noted that Yale policy prohibits “clandestine” recordings.
The current version of Yale’s recording policy, effective in 2024, states: “Unless authorized by University staff, participants in meetings in the course of their employment or curricular or extracurricular activities may not record such meetings without the permission of all participants.”
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PK Press Club Digital cannot confirm whether additional letters were exchanged between Newman’s lawyers and Yale representatives.
A source provided copies of the letter and email exchange between Granovsky and Yale to PK Press Club Digital, and Newman confirmed their authenticity.
