Kristen and Nat MacAdams’ recent gift to the University of Mississippi is being honored by the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation (OMAF) with a lasting family tribute.
The Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, couple’s name adorns Gate 30 of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, representing the family’s desire to strengthen athletics facilities and help recruit student-athletes to campus.
The MacAdamses hope their gift will contribute to the university’s vision to equip student-athletes, coaches and support staff with anything necessary to compete at the highest levels.
“I’d love to see us make the college football playoffs!” said Nat MacAdams who earned a bachelor’s degree in 1999 from UM’s College of Liberal Arts, having double-majored in mathematics and economics. Kristen MacAdams graduated from Ole Miss with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accountancy in 1998 and 1999 respectively.
The MacAdamses’ gift is part of OMAF’s drive to honor donors with naming opportunities for each entrance at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
“We are so grateful to Kristen and Nat for participating in our gate naming initiative, which plays an integral role in supporting Champions. Now., our campaign to bolster athletics at Ole Miss,” said Quinn Kavanagh, OMAF assistant athletics director of development. “This type of gift shows their commitment to helping us continue to maintain a competitive edge.”
Nat MacAdams said having his name on an entrance to the football stadium represents many great memories of his college days at Ole Miss — one in particular:
“I proposed to Kristen in the Grove,” he said. “I stuck the ring in a rose and kneeled down to propose. She grabbed it, said yes and gave me a hug, but she didn’t realize there was a ring in the rose. When I looked, the ring was gone, and we had to go searching for it. There were drainage grates and all sorts of stuff. We found it, but I would say that’s a pretty special memory.”
The two met in high school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and now have four children: Duncan, 21, Annabelle, 19, Ainsley, 17, and Caitlin, 15.
For most of his career after college, Nat MacAdams has worked in the commodities trading divisions for major corporations. After graduating, he was hired by Ernst and Young but soon transferred to Enron, then BP, followed by employment with the hedge fund Citadel. He transferred from Citadel to a Pennsylvania natural gas producer, Rice Energy, which was bought by EQT, where he’s been for the past nine years.
“I run their commodities group, so they’re trading division, basically, for natural gas, NGLs, LNG, all their front office stuff,” he said.
Kristen MacAdams is an accountant with Adecco, an executive search firm.
When they’re not working, the couple enjoys playing golf and traveling together. And they try to make it to campus for at least one game each year.
“A lot of my fondest memories are coming to football games, not only when I was a student here, but also when I lived in Memphis working for Ernst and Young. Even when we were in Houston before we had kids, we would come back to a lot of games,” Nat MacAdams said.
“I just thought it’d be really cool to have our name up on something at the school, considering how much of a big part of my life this campus has been.”
For information on naming opportunities at Ole Miss or to make a gift to Champions. Now., click here or contact Quinn Kavanagh, OMAF assistant athletics director of development, at kavanagh@givetoathletics.com or 662-832-5241.
By Bill Dabney/UM Foundation