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Monday, March 23, 2026
The Daily Pennsylvanian

Ivy commish to step down after 25 years

Jeff Orleans said yesterday that he will retire as Ivy Group Executive Director, effective June 30, 2009.

Orleans, the only full-time Executive Director in Ivy history, has held his position since September 1984.

"I have been extremely fortunate over the last two decades to have the chance to help the Ivy League's extraordinary student-athletes succeed," the Yale and Yale Law School graduate said in a statement.

Penn President Amy Gutmann, Chair of the Council of Ivy Group Presidents, will oversee - along with Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust and Dartmouth President James Wright - the search for Orleans' replacement. Barbara Stevens, of the firm Isaacson, Miller, will actually conduct the search.

"I express our deepest appreciation for his dedication, service and achievements through times of constant change both nationally and in the Ivy League," Gutmann said when announcing Orleans' retirement.

Orleans has served on the NCAA's Division I Management Council and Restructuring and Gender Equity Task Forces and on the Executive Board of the National Association of College and University Attorneys.

As a lawyer, before joining the Ivy League, Orleans helped draft the original Title IX legislation.

--David Gurian-Peck