Hokie Ventures was officially approved by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors at Tuesday's full board meeting in Hitt Hall on campus.
The Board of Visitors had unanimously approved resolutions to affiliate with and loan funds to the new athletics-related corporation on Monday, a vote by 10 of its 14 members across two committees â athletics and finance and resource management. Now, Hokie Ventures is official, as unanimously approved by the full board without discussion.
"It's an agility play designed to serve as a supplemental tool for the sustainable future of our department, and it positions us for long-term success in a rapidly changing environment," Tech athletics chief financial officer Brandon Hall said on Monday.
Hokie Ventures will focus on new revenue generation that can be called by the new vice president and director of athletics. It will be governed by an independent nine-person board, which will feature the president, the athletic director, the senior vice president for advancement, a Board of Visitors appointee and five independent voting members.
It's structured to be a 501(c)(3). It'll be similar to the Virginia Tech Foundation, a non-profit organization from which the president can call funds to support strategic efforts. Hokie Ventures will be that for Tech athletics, and it will be able to have for-profit LLC subsidiaries, just like the Virginia Tech Foundation has Hotel Roanoke and the Corporate Research Center.
"Hokie Ventures is a bold, forward-thinking step that recognizes the realities of modern college athletics and creates opportunities to strengthen the resources, partnerships and overall support necessary to compete and win at the highest level," Hokies football coach James Franklin said in Tech's release. "We're committed to positioning Virginia Tech aggressively and responsibly for long-term success, a mindset benefiting our football program, our student-athletes and the entire department."
Clemson, Kentucky, Michigan State, Texas Tech and Utah are some of the schools that have gone a similar route with an athletics-related corporation. It'll allow the Hokies to be nimble in a rapidly changing competitive environment.
The new Virginia Tech AD and CEO of the LLC will work together to advance the goals of the athletic department. The former will manage traditional athletics duties, including oversight of coaches, while the latter will oversee the commercial side of the enterprise, like pursuing sponsorships, multimedia rights and naming rights.
It also creates a structure for new investment instruments and business ventures, and allows for the creation of a for-profit structure to manage future NIL opportunities, which women's basketball head coach Megan Duffy described as "a monster" that has "taken on a world of its own."
"As we continue to elevate Virginia Tech athletics as a strategic priority that strengthens the student experience, creates shared community pride, drives regional economic impact and enhances national visibility, we must accelerate our competitive momentum and capacity to meet the challenges ahead," Virginia Tech president Tim Sands said. "Hokie Ventures will enhance our ability to support our student-athletes, engage our fans, manage the NIL landscape and prepare for the future of college athletics."
Sands also described athletics as "going through a metamorphosis" at Tuesday's meeting, and the approval of Hokie Ventures is the next step. He specifically thanked Board of Visitors member Ted Hanson, who spearheaded the Future State Subcommittee of the Athletics Investment Oversight Committee (AIOC), the group that guided the transformational change.
"[Hokie Ventures] will provide Virginia Tech with the flexibility we need to compete, regardless of the structural changes that come our way in the future," Sands said.
The university is loaning Hokie Ventures $15.2 million via bridge loan funding that was approved during the September 2025 meeting, which kicked off the 'Invest to Win' plan. It will not carry an interest rate.
"This is another important step in a comprehensive strategy to elevate and enhance athletics at Virginia Tech," Hanson said. "It began with the Board's approval of the historic 'Invest to Win' plan, which then became foundational to the hiring of James Franklin, and now the creation of Hokie Ventures. Hokie Ventures will provide a modern, future-state architecture to deal with the evolving landscape of college athletics and set up Virginia Tech for future success."
On a different note, the Board of Visitors unanimously elected Jim Miller as its next rector and Nancy Dye as its next vice rector on Tuesday afternoon. Their one-year terms will begin on July 1, 2026.
As far as the presidential search goes, the 22-member search committee gathered at the conclusion of Tuesday's Board of Visitors meeting.
Chaired by Dye, the committee's consensus for the search's timeline aligned with the second of two outlines presented by Isaacson, Miller, the search firm Tech appointed. The final selection for a president is estimated to fall on the week of Nov. 30, with negotiations and an acceptance in December. It was the more slower of the two options, as the first had the final selection slated for September.