LAWRENCE "BUBBA" CUNNINGHAM
Board Member *Effective 1/1/23
Lawrence R. (Bubba) Cunningham was appointed to the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee board of directors and will begin serving as an independent representative in January 2023.
Cunningham has served as the director of athletics for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill since November 2011, and during his tenure has overseen numerous academic achievements and the opening of multiple new facilities as North Carolina teams have won a total of 19 national titles.
Cunningham’s mission — and Carolina’s mission statement — during his tenure: “We educate and inspire through athletics.”
During Cunningham’s time in Chapel Hill, more than 3,000 UNC student-athletes have been named to the Atlantic Coast Conference honor roll and more than 40 have been invited into Phi Beta Kappa Societies. Twelve students have been named Elite 90 recipients by the NCAA, and UNC’s overall student-athlete GPA reached its highest marks in three straight semesters.
UNC teams have won NCAA Championships in men’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s lacrosse and field hockey since 2011. During that time, UNC has also won eight Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Indoor Championships in men’s and women’s tennis.
In his 20th year as a Division I director of athletics, Cunningham also currently serves on the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee and is in his 10th year on the ACC Television Committee, which led the launch of the ACC Network in 2019.
In 2020, he earned the AD of the Year Award from The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.
Cunningham earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from the University of Notre Dame in 1984 and 1988.