Cathy Engelbert - The Business

BASKETBALL - WNBA - COMMISSIONER -

LEHIGH UNIVERSITY

ARCHETYPE: THE BUSINESS

Day 115/135

Athletic Accomplishments

Cathy Engelbert is a corporate executive who has been Commissioner of the WNBA since 2019.

Growing up, Engelbert was an athlete. She loved basketball, playing in high school and eventually being inducted into the Collingswood Athletic Hall of Fame in 1993.

She attended Lehigh University, where she played both lacrosse and walked onto the basketball team and played for future legend, Muffet McGraw. For her leadership skills, Engelbert was eventually named team captain.

After college, Engelbert worked her way up the corporate ladder at Deloitte for 33 years. She held many positions, including national managing partner, deputy national professional practice director, and financial accounting and reporting services quality risk manager. She was named a partner in 1998.

Lauded for her crisis and people management, Engelbert became CEO of Deloitte in 2015, serving a 4-year term at the helm of the company. She was the first female U.S. CEO of a Big Four firm.

In 2019, at the end of her term, Engelbert was hired as Commissioner of the WNBA, where in just 2 years, she has since overseen some of the most dramatic changes in league history.

Character Archetype: The Business

Cathy Engelbert became Commissioner of the WNBA in 2019. Since then, she’s been the business leader, navigating the league through some extraordinarily tough times. I mean, she really jumped right into the hot water.

In early 2020, she helped the WNBA navigate and negotiate a collective bargaining agreement, which has been held up as THE example for advancement of women’s sports.

Then, the pandemic hit, and Engelbert had to decide whether to cancel the season or how to pivot to a safe site. A few short months later, the Wubble season kicked off Bradenton, Florida.

Then, the WNBA players got involved in racial justice issues, dedicating their season to Breonna Taylor, protesting after the murder of George Floyd, boycotting after the shooting of Jacob Blake, and organizing political action against then-Atlanta Dream owner and U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler.

And yet, despite all the choppy waters and tough decisions, Engelbert and the league shined. WNBA ratings went up 68% in a year when ratings for men’s sports declined significantly. But more importantly, Engelbert demonstrated why she deserves this leadership role: that lady fucking gets it.

She doesn’t fight the players on their requests for maternity leave or their desire for political action. She hears them, supports them, amplifies them. A business leader who understands that the players ARE the product. Win their trust, and you can’t lose.