In August, 2022, the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation announced Denson Hollis as Chief Executive Officer / Sr. Associate Athletics Director for Development.In his career at Ole Miss, Hollis has raised over $150M leading record-breaking fundraising teams in academics and athletics.In this role, Hollis leads all development and fundraising operations for the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation (“OMAF”), including campaign oversight, major giving, the annual fund, premium seating, endowment and planned giving, donor stewardship, event hospitality, and coordination with all other areas of University development including the OMAF board. Additionally, he serves on the Ole Miss Athletics department’s executive team and senior staff team.During Hollis’s first year as CEO, OMAF had its third highest overall year at $47.1M. This transformational year, saw OMAF launch the first ever women’s athletics major giving society “eMpower,” the inaugural estate giving society for Ole Miss Athletics “Forever Ole Miss,” the inaugural donor airplane program “Air Rebs,” vastly expanded the gift-in-kind program for Ole Miss Athletics and reached an all time high in Vaught Society members at 640.In his previous position as Chief Development Officer, the OMAF major gifts team flourished under Hollis’s two-year leadership. The 2021 fiscal year saw his team raise $24.7 million, the third-highest total in OMAF history. Hollis’s team shattered that number during the 2022 fiscal year, when it raised an all-time record $31.9 million in addition to launching the $175M Champions. Now. capital campaign. Lastly, under Hollis’s leadership, Vaught Society hit a then record 530 sustained members that same year.Prior to joining OMAF, Hollis worked in UM Development from 2009 – 2020, where he ultimately served as the Exec. Dir. of Principal Gifts. The mission of PG program was to create philanthropic collaboration among all areas of Ole Miss. During his tenure with university development his fundraising efforts touched every corner of campus, including securing major gifts for every school on campus, athletics and numerous cultural arts areas.Hollis, a native of Clarksdale MS, earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Ole Miss in 2001 and a master’s degree in sport management from Georgia Southern in 2004. Hollis lives in Oxford with his wife, Lauren, a 2004 Ole Miss alumna and their three daughters, Eloise, Marian, and Vivi. Hollis is a third-generation Ole Miss alumnus and is one of 18 people in his immediate and extended family to attend Mississippi’s flagship university.