SUNY Old Westbury Athletics

SUNY Old Westbury's Athletic Director Lenore J. Walsh announced the hiring of Max Finkelstein to serve as the Athletic Communications Director. Finkelstein will oversee athletic communications for all 13 of SUNY Old Westbury's intercollegiate athletic programs. 

Finkelstein joined the SUNY Old Westbury athletics department back in November of 2023.

"I would like to thank Lenore Walsh and the entire search committee for this incredible opportunity.  I am excited to join the Panther community and the SUNY Old Westbury athletics department. There is a lot of work to be done, but I'm excited about the opportunities that are on the horizon. I can't wait to start exploring the history and traditions of OW Athletics and help deliver to our fans. I am looking forward to getting to work with our student-athletes, coaches, and campus community and being a part of a positive and competitive collegiate athletics culture," Finkelstein said. 

"I cannot wait to apply the experiences that I have had over the last few years in both the collegiate and professional athletics field to the athletic communications department here at Old Westbury." 

In this role, Finkelstein will be responsible for covering all of SUNY Old Westbury's intercollegiate athletic programs. This includes media relations, interview requests, pre/post game write-ups, roster and website maintenance, live-stats and live-streams at all home contents and managing all OW Athletics' social media accounts, to name a few tasks.

Finkelstein joins SUNY Old Westbury from Ithaca College where he graduated with a degree in Sports Media and Live Event Management. 

While at Ithaca College, Finkelstein worked in the athletic communications department for all four years. He started as an intern where he was responsible for maintaining aspects of the department's website as well as creating social media graphics, writing post-game stories, and other related content. 

Finkelstein was later hired in 2021 as a student assistant for the department. In this role, he was able to serve as an assistant contact for men's and women's rowing and handle almost every aspect of those teams' athletic communications needs. During this time, Finkelstein also helped run live-stats, prepared live-streams, PA announced, and assisted with gameday operations for home contests. Finkelstein was a member of the gameday staff for many significant games including several Liberty League playoff games, NCAA events, and the annual Cortaca Jug rivalry football game between Ithaca College and SUNY Cortland.

In the spring of 2023, through the Roy. H. Park School of Communications, Finkelstein served as an associate producer for the inaugural season of the Talking Title IX Podcast. The series featured various discussions relating to different topics within Title IX from across the college athletics landscape. The podcast showcased many distinguished guests and experts from around the world of college sports. 

Most recently, Finkelstein spent two separate stints with the New York Mets. He first worked with the marketing department where he helped to further develop the NY Mets' 'Kid's Club'. He was tasked with managing the program's database as well as being on the front lines and interacting with fans throughout the ballpark.

In his second season with the Mets, in the summer of 2023, Finkelstein worked in the alumni relations and broadcasting departments. There he handled an array of responsibilities such as coordinating travel for Mets' alumni, planning events such as player retirement days, running the NY Mets' Alumni Ambassador Program, and helping to manage the Mets' promotional item storage/distribution. 
 
Finkelstein has experience as a collegiate athlete himself. While pursuing his degree at Ithaca College, he was a three-year member of the men's rowing team. During his time on the team, Finkelstein won several awards including the Peggy Ryan Williams Academic and Leadership Award, Liberty League All-Academic Honors in 2020 and Liberty League Boat of the Week in 2019.