Erik van Dillen is an American business man, sport and lifestyle marketing expert, and a world class tennis player who played over 25 major Grand Slam Championships; Australian, French and U.S. Open’s and Wimbledon. Today, as CEO of van Dillen Partners, Erik works with corporations to help them fully utilize creative and measurable sponsorship and marketing programs in the sports, entertainment and cultural space.
Professional Tennis
Born February 21, 1951 in San Mateo, California, Erik first took up a racquet at age six, starting one of the most successful American junior tennis careers ever. He was an outstanding junior tennis player winning both the singles and doubles competitions at the prestigious USTA Boys 16 & 18 National Championships in Kalamazoo, Michigan as well as winning numerous other national tiles in the 12 & 14 year old divisions.
Between 1960 and 1981, Erik compiled wins over six of the world number one players; McEnroe, Smith, Ashe, Connors, Vilas, and Nastase. He ranked as high as number 28 in the world in singles and with partner Stan Smith were considered by many as the number one doubles team in the world going 5-0 in Davis Cup competition and winning the Cup as well as being runner–up in both Wimbledon and US Open doubles in the 1971 and 1972 seasons.
IMG
Erik earned a degree in finance from the University of Southern California and an MBA from San Francisco State University. He joined IMG, the world’s oldest and largest sports marketing agency, founded by Mark McCormack. While at IMG, Erik co-managed IMG’s national sales force during six of the agency’s most successful sales years and was one of nine people appointed to the North America marketing group which oversaw all operations for IMG including acquisitions, policy, direction, hiring, budgeting, and branding.
Erik ultimately rose to the position of Senior Corporate Vice President, responsible for managing the West Coast offices and leading the event management, sponsorship sales and consulting business in the Western region for over 23 years. During that time, he worked with sports luminaries Joe Montana, Martina Navratilova, Arnold Palmer, Kristi Yamaguchi and Chris Evert and helped to build a number of successful sport and lifestyle events including the WTA Bank of the West Tennis Classic (formerly the Virginia Slims of Oakland), the US Open of Surfing (a 10-day sports and lifestyle exhibition which grew attendance 2,500 to over 400,000 under Erik’s direction), the Transamerica Seniors Golf Championship and the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon. He also consulted for companies such as GAP, DHL, Bank of the West, iShares, HP, eHealth, and Franklin Templeton.
van Dillen Partners
After the untimely death of Mark McCormack in 2003, Erik struck out on his own, creating van Dillen Partners a sports and lifestyle marketing agency. In this capacity, Erik works with professional sports and media associations including: Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP), Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP), Stanford University Athletics, ESPN, NBC Sports, Fox Sports Net, ABC Sports and CBS Sports.
Erik has served as a founding member of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), guest lecturer at Stanford University's MBA program, member of the Stanford University Athletic Board, US Davis Cup Site Selection Committee and a member of the WTA Tournament Director Association.
Personal life
Erik is married to Barbara van Dillen and together they have five children. He lives in San Mateo, California.
Awards & Honors
Erik won the prestigious USTA Boys 16 & 18s singles and doubles National Championships in Kalamazoo, Michigan and won numerous other age group singles and doubles championships.
Erik was ranked as high as 28 in the world in singles.
He played on seven different Davis Cup teams and won the Davis Cup twice for the U.S. in 1971 and 1972
Erik was a finalist in both the U.S. Open Australian and Wimbledon Open Champtionships
He is considered the number one double team in the world in 1972 with partner Stan Smith
Erik had wins over six #1 ranked tennis players: Ashe, Smith, Connors, Nastase, Vilas, McEnroe
Erik won a single career title, the 1973 Nottingham Open Singles title, defeating Frew McMillan (3-6:6-1:6-1).
Famous quotes containing the words erik and/or van:
“Young people of high school age can actually feel themselves changing. Progress is almost tangible. It’s exciting. It stimulates more progress. Nevertheless, growth is not constant and smooth. Erik Erikson quotes an aphorism to describe the formless forming of it. “I ain’t what I ought to be. I ain’t what I’m going to be, but I’m not what I was.””
—Stella Chess (20th century)
“The Mediterranean has the color of mackerel, changeable I mean. You don’t always know if it is green or violet, you can’t even say it’s blue, because the next moment the changing reflection has taken on a tint of rose or gray.”
—Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890)