Amid the swirling uncertainty of WNBA free company, the Chicago Sky made a significant addition this week — to their entrance workplace, not their roster.
The Sky employed Nadia Rawlinson for a newly created position of working chairman. Rawlinson goals to ascertain a stronger base for the enterprise facets of the crew because the WNBA continues to develop on and off the court docket.
“For therefore lengthy, many WNBA groups have been simply attempting to outlive,” Rawlinson stated. “Particularly from an operational standpoint, they have been simply attempting to get by means of and make it. And now it’s time to thrive.”
Earlier than Rawlinson’s rent, the Sky’s government department consisted of three folks: CEO and President Adam Fox, chief monetary officer Stephanie Hedrick and head of technique Watchen Nyanue.
Principal proprietor Michael Alter and Fox started to debate the idea of making the working chairman position in 2021. It wasn’t a concrete place, and the franchise by no means underwent an interview course of. However final yr when Alter met Rawlinson — who initially was all in favour of merely investing within the crew — he rapidly started to really feel the Sky had discovered their new working chairman.
Rawlinson brings a deep background in human assets, technique and enterprise growth — as former chief folks officer for Slack Applied sciences; as the previous chief human assets officer for Dwell Nation Leisure; and as a present advisor for enterprise capital agency Google Ventures. She at present serves on the board of administrators for J. Crew, Vail Resorts and Save the Kids and sits on the Stanford College Board of Trustees and the Harvard Enterprise Faculty Board of Dean’s Advisors.
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To Alter, the expertise paired with a deep love for Chicago, basketball and the empowerment of ladies’s sports activities made Rawlinson the right match.
“We thought, ‘If we discover the best individual, it could be nice to do that,’ ” Alter stated. “We didn’t do any formal search. It was actually only a thought that we had. She’s completely the right individual to be on this position.”
Rawlinson will oversee the event of the Sky’s strategic enterprise initiatives, which incorporates establishing and rising company partnerships and rising the group’s civic engagement all through the group.
Rawlinson and Alter highlighted two areas for rapid development. The primary is sports activities betting, which just lately turned a viable income outlet due to legal guidelines enacted in March. The second is the institution of a media rights deal in 2025, which Alter believes is “method undervalued” underneath the present settlement with the WNBA.
Alter believes Rawlinson’s experience from the company sector will enable the Sky to extend income to compete more fervently in future free-agent markets whereas additionally offering advantages corresponding to constitution flights, which turned a key matter for gamers this offseason.
“The largest goal all of us have is we have to develop income,” Alter stated. “That’s how we pay gamers more cash, which they badly deserve. And that’s how we afford the constitution flights, which additionally they deserve. So these are all issues we wish to have. We must be able to try this.
“One of many methods we do that’s by bringing in extremely gifted folks like Nadia, who may very well be working, making much more cash someplace within the company world however believes deeply in what we’re attempting to construct right here.”
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Alongside her position as working chairman, Rawlinson additionally joins the Sky as a co-owner, with Alter remaining the principal proprietor. It isn’t her first enterprise into sports activities funding — through the pandemic, Rawlinson and her husband began a sports activities fund to speculate minority stakes in minor-league baseball, lacrosse and hockey groups.
Rawlinson stated she gained expertise and appreciation for the way the right mixture of capital and strategic operational experience can enhance the success of a sports activities franchise.
Making use of those self same practices to a WNBA franchise shall be a brand new problem, however Rawlinson embraces what she described as a “crucible second” for the Sky and the league.
“I consider in the way forward for the crew,” Rawlinson stated. “This isn’t only a ardour factor. This can be a true monetary asset for my household. You simply don’t randomly spend money on asset lessons that you just don’t assume are going to offer you returns, proper? I consider sooner or later give attention to the crew. I believe it’s a fantastic wager.”
A Lake Forest native, Rawlinson’s affinity for the Sky derives from a lifetime of Chicago basketball. She grew up through the golden days of the Bulls — attempting to trick-or-treat at Michael Jordan’s home as a child, celebrating her sixteenth birthday within the rafter seats of a sport, sneaking out to take the Metra downtown with associates to have a good time the 1997 championship.
However Rawlinson additionally sees her new position with the Sky as a possibility to spend money on the various intersectional communities who are sometimes ignored in sports activities growth, together with girls, folks of coloration and the LGBTQ group.
As a Black lady, Rawlinson stated she’s spent most of her skilled profession feeling othered. Within the Sky, she noticed an opportunity to decide to a special sort of setting — a franchise created “for girls by girls, particularly girls of coloration.”
“You need to actually navigate these areas that weren’t constructed for you,” Rawlinson stated. “I need to have the ability to pay it ahead and make issues higher and simpler for the following technology, the following lady, the following individual of coloration, creating the longer term the best way I consider it must be.
“If I can try this inside establishments like sports activities, inside girls’s sports activities, inside the W specifically after which in Chicago — you may’t get any higher than that. “
