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EXCLUSIVE: Two of Yale’s top athletic officials bought a house together a year before one of them was hired by the university, a deed obtained by Pak Gazette Digital shows. Former colleagues have alleged that the two officials have a romantic relationship and alleged that a former manager was pressured to retire to vacate a position for one of the partners.
Yale Assistant Executive Director and Director of Athletics Operations Ann-Marie Guglieri and Assistant Director of Athletics Mary Berdo, who hold the second- and third-ranked positions in the athletics department under Athletic Director Victoria Chun, bought a home together in Milford, Connecticut, in June 2018, the deed shows. Berdo was then hired by the university in April 2019.
Chun, Guglieri and Berdo previously worked together in the athletics department at Colgate University. Yale’s then-president named Chun director of athletics in February 2018, and she joined Yale in July 2018. Guglieri started that same month.
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More than 54,000 people fill the Yale Bowl for the second half of the 141st play of “The Game” between the Yale Bulldogs and Harvard Crimson on November 22, 2025 in New Haven, Connecticut. (Sean D. Elliot/Getty Images)
Two former Yale athletic department employees have alleged that Guglieri and Berdo are in a romantic relationship. Other former employees have alleged that a former administrator was pressured to accept a voluntary retirement package, which then created a vacancy for Berdo.
Guglieri and Berdo’s relationship does not appear to violate Yale’s employment policies, which state: “Staff are expected to avoid romantic or sexual relationships with employees and trainees for whom they have or could reasonably be expected to have supervisory or reporting responsibilities.”
A Yale athletics organizational chart obtained by Pak Gazette Digital, created some time after 2019, shows that Berdo and Guglieri do not have a reporting or supervisory relationship with each other. Instead, they both report directly to Chun.
Although the relationship does not violate Yale policy, a former Yale coach opined that it is “totally unprofessional” for two people with leadership roles in the Athletics Department “to be in a relationship with each other.”
The former coach told Pak Gazette Digital, on condition of anonymity, that it was “well known” in the department that Guglieri and Berdo were a “couple,” although “they didn’t make it clear.” He said they “came as a package.”
A former Yale athletic administrator told Pak Gazette Digital, on condition of anonymity, that the relationship was “widely known” in the athletic department.
Two former employees said the athletics department couldn’t increase its staff to hire Berdo at the same time it hired Guglieri. But Pak Gazette Digital learned that a former athletics department administrator reluctantly accepted a voluntary retirement package, and Berdo was hired soon after.
The former senior associate athletic director was allegedly “given no choice” but to accept the voluntary retirement package in the fall of 2018, creating a vacancy in the department’s front office prior to Berdo’s hiring, according to a former Yale Athletics employee with firsthand knowledge of the situation.
“In October 2018 they called a senior associate athletic director and pressured him to accept a retirement package, and this person had no choice but to accept this retirement package and give 90 days’ notice, and right after the 90-day notice, they hired Mary Berdo,” the former employee said.
Former Yale men’s hockey head coach Keith Allain told Pak Gazette Digital that the former employee’s recollection of the forced retirement and eventual hiring of Berdo is consistent with what he had been told by people within the athletics department. Allain declined to comment further.
Yale fans watch their sides loss during the Harvard vs Yale decider game, College Football, Ivy League, Harvard Stadium, Boston, Massachusetts, USA November 22, 2014. Photo Tim Clayton (Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)
Sources Pak Gazette Digital spoke to did not state that Guglieri was involved in Berdo’s selection process. But one said there was “a big question mark over the appropriate hiring of Mary Berdo, also from Colgate,” and whether the process was completely objective.
While Yale declined to comment “on individual personnel issues,” a spokesperson for the university president’s office told Pak Gazette Digital, “We can confirm that Yale has a robust set of personnel and disclosure policies that it followed.”
Before joining Yale, Berdo was senior associate athletic director at Colgate University and a member of the department’s senior executive staff. She previously worked at the NCAA National Headquarters and as assistant director of events and championships at the University of Michigan. He played basketball at the University of Iowa.
“Vicky was only able to bring one director, Ann-Marie, with her at the beginning of her tenure at Yale,” another former Yale Athletics employee told Pak Gazette Digital on condition of anonymity.
The employee said he had left Yale when Berdo was hired, but questioned whether the process could have involved “preferential treatment” since “Mary’s hiring seemed to be predetermined a year in advance.”
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Pak Gazette Digital contacted Guglieri and Berdo through their university email addresses and an email address believed to belong to Chun, but did not receive a response.
Pak Gazette Digital has verified the identity of former employees who spoke on condition of anonymity and who worked at Yale in the timelines provided. Other sources contacted by Pak Gazette Digital did not dispute or contradict any of the above allegations.
Former Yale coaches have had issues with current leadership
Head coach Keith Allain of the USA during practice before the 2011 IIHF World U20 Championship Group A match between the USA and Finland on December 26, 2010 at the HSBC Arena in Buffalo, New York. (Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
A letter signed by Allain to Yale President Maurie McInnis alleged that Chun had created a “toxic environment” for the university’s sports teams.
Pak Gazette Digital published the letter last Monday after confirming with Allain that it sent the letter to McInnis via email in October, shortly after his retirement.
“I am writing to you at the request of several head coaches in our Athletics Department. I was told that you were seeking feedback from some coaches regarding the extension of our athletic director’s contract, and they are concerned that with the culture of fear that permeates the athletics department, they will not receive candid feedback,” the letter began.
The letter later said: “Vicky’s singular talent is self-promotion and she has created a toxic environment within the department where she is isolated by a group of administrators whose primary task appears to be to silence any dissent,” the letter continued.
Newman’s attorney did not allege that Chun or Guglieri were responsible for making the recording.
The letter, sent approximately four years after Newsman left the university in 2021, requested a “dialogue to reach an agreement, including financial and non-financial terms.” Newman has not taken legal action against Yale or any Yale representatives, and Pak Gazette Digital does not know whether the parties have resolved their dispute.
As part of the exchange of letters, a former Yale deputy general counsel confirmed to Granovsky: “A former employee recorded a portion of a meeting with his client, without the university’s knowledge.” Yale’s attorney denied other allegations made by Granovsky.
A later letter indicates that Yale then provided a copy of an audio file to Granovsky on October 28, 2025. Granovsky responded on November 17 with questions about the recording, noting that Yale policy prohibits “surreptitious” recordings.
The current version of Yale’s recording policy, which went into effect in 2024, states: “Unless authorized by University staff, participants in meetings in the course of their employment or curricular or extracurricular activities may not record such meetings without the permission of all participants.”
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Pak Gazette Digital cannot confirm whether additional letters were exchanged between Newman’s attorneys and Yale representatives.
A source provided copies of the letter and email exchange between Granovsky and Yale to Pak Gazette Digital, and Newman confirmed its authenticity.
