Bio

Cliff Dochterman, director of Athletics, joined Riverside City College in the summer of 2023. A veteran sports marketing and team operations executive, Dochterman has built a national reputation as one of the finest sports organization start-up or revitalization artists.

Dochterman played vital roles in the establishment of the National Football League's international spring league, the World League of American Football, the Texas-Louisiana Professional Baseball League, and several additional leagues and teams as a consultant. His specialization in strategic planning, financial management, professional staffing, marketing and sales, and fundraising has resulted in the development of championship organizations in intercollegiate and professional sports. Dochterman also has expertise in player personnel, contract negotiations, and team development, with some specific concentration in football, basketball, baseball, and soccer programs. Dochterman has been recognized as the national marketer of the year in college athletics and an executive of the year in professional sports. But above all else, he is a true academician with a leadership style that brings the best out of coaches, staff and student-athletes, as well as the campus and surrounding community.

For the past six years, Dochterman has served as the principal of Whale Rock Management, a diversified consulting group that specializes in building dynamic business structures and operating models for mid-sized business ventures and minor league sports operations. He specialized in business infrastructures, commercial real estate, valuations, special event management, feasibility studies, and programming. Dochterman supported college athletics programs as a consultant in athletics leadership, marketing, sales, fundraising training, and campaign development.

In 2014, Dochterman was hired to overhaul the UC Santa Cruz athletics. Dochterman created an infrastructure, operating models and the financial structure to stabilize the program. He was responsible for the overall direction of a program that included 14 NCAA Sports, 48 club sports, and an intramural program that encompassed over 4,500 participants. During his time at Santa Cruz, 8 of the 14 athletic teams qualified for NCAA championship play in each of his years with the Banana Slugs. Dochterman is credited with the revitalization of the academic support system for athletics, which resulted in 180 All-Academic honorees, including 67 with 3.5-plus GPAs, 71 percent of the student athletes earned a 3.0-plus GPA, and as a department the student athletes compiled a GPA of 3.36 during this past academic year, compared to 2.83 GPA prior to his arrival. He established student services and discipline programs which expanded academic support, counseling and drug testing programs.

Prior to UC Santa Cruz, Dochterman served as the head of Corporate Relations for the California State University, San Bernardino as well as the head of the Development Program for Coyote Athletics. After two successful years with the Coyotes, Dochterman returned to the Irvine-based Paramount Group, an international holding company specializing in mergers, acquisitions, private placement investments, and international business consulting ventures as their senior vice president and chief operating officer. He directed strategic planning, business operations, project management and value engineering for each of the international business consulting, health care and sports business divisions.

In 2007, Dochterman took over the operations of the NBA Development League’s Anaheim Arsenal, serving as team president. In Anaheim, he successfully led the revitalization of a distressed franchise and restructuring of the ownership model on behalf of the NBA. His efforts in sales, marketing and the reorganization of the basketball operation ultimately enabled the team to be remarketed for sale and relocation.

Dochterman spent over 11 years as the senior associate athletics director and chief of staff at the University of California, Riverside where he led the University’s transition to Division I. Arriving at UC Riverside in 1996, Dochterman served as the senior associate athletics director where he was responsible for marketing and sales programs for the Highlanders. Over time his duties grew to include direction of the internal operations of the department including game management, contract negotiations, scheduling, facilities, and numerous sport and business related operation areas of the athletics department.

Dochterman was the primary architect of UC Riverside’s move to Division I, spearheading lobbying efforts to gain the school’s admittance to the Big West Conference. Along the way, he constructed sponsorship and annual fund programs as well as directed creation of the organizational infrastructure, game management, and business operations for the athletic department. In 2001, the National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators recognized Dochterman as their Marketer of the Year. Dochterman later served as national vice president of NACMA and as one of their national trainers in the area of campaign development and marketing programs. Under Dochterman's leadership, UC Riverside established the Highlander Sports Network for the live radio and television broadcast of men's and women's basketball, women's volleyball, and baseball throughout the Los Angeles basin. The television network reached 4.7 million homes and was available nationwide via satellite. He also established a regional all-sports weekly television show on ESPN2. He also developed and launched a new cable channel for the University to use for distance learning, training and sports coverage. Dochterman additionally held the position of executive director of the

UCR Athletics Association, managing the team concept Blue & Gold Fund Drive; the UCR Athletics Association's Gary McCord Golf Classic; and the Braveheart Auction & Food Festival. Prior to UCR, Dochterman spent two seasons as vice president of the Texas-Louisiana Professional Baseball League, as well as general manager of the Amarillo (TX) Dilla's baseball team. While in Texas, he directed development of the franchise startup and operations plan for the Texas-Louisiana League, guiding the Amarillo Dillas to the league's top attendance mark in 1994 and 1995. During his tenure the franchise was twice named the Texas-Louisiana League Franchise of the Year. Dochterman earned the league’s Executive of the Year honor in 1994 and 1995 and was named the 1995 Sportsman of the Year by the West Texas Sports Hall of Fame. He took the successful formula developed in Amarillo and applied it to the start up of another franchise, the Lubbock Crickets. In his role as vice president of the Texas-Louisiana League, Dochterman provided league-wide leadership in the area of marketing and franchise operations.

One of Dochterman's most successful stops was his two-year stint as assistant general manager of the Sacramento Surge Professional Football Club from 1990 to 1992. In 1992, the Surge won the championship of the NFL World League, and Dochterman held key roles in developing franchise start-up operations; coordinated team business services; travel; and supervised team medical, equipment, security, and video departments as well as directed pre-season training camps. He was involved in construction of a 30,000-seat stadium at Hornet Field, and the team headquarters and training complex. The Sacramento Surge was selected by the World League as Franchise of the Year in 1992.

In 1990, Dochterman served as vice president for Sales and Marketing of the World Champion San Diego Sockers. He was responsible for implementation and direction of a comprehensive marketing and sales program that lead the Major Indoor Soccer League in attendance. He joined the Sockers after serving as associate athletic director at UC Santa Barbara from 1987 to 1989, where he was instrumental in making the Gauchos a top-flight Division I program, including developing the Thunderdome persona of the Campus Event Center and increasing their annual revenues by five-fold. Dochterman has served as director of football operations at the University of Pacific and the University of Michigan, the latter under legendary Bo Schembechler. At Michigan, Dochterman was responsible for a variety of recruiting and logistical operations, and twice had the top recruiting class. At the University of Pacific, he worked under Pete Carroll as assistant offensive line coach. His coaching career includes a two-year stop at Tokay High School in Lodi, CA, where he was offensive line coach. Dochterman attained his BA degree in Communications from the University of Pacific and a Master of Science in Sports Management from the United States Sports Academy.