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Women Leaders in Sports Podcast


Feb 14, 2021

In this podcast, Patti Phillips shares the highly anticipated conversation with the commissioner of the WNBA, Cathy Engelbert.

Cathy is an innovative and people-first leader who has made an immediate impact on the WNBA in her first 18-months as Commissioner. Cathy is no stranger to leading through crisis and navigating challenges -as she spent 33 years at Deloitte, including 4 years as CEO.

During this conversation, Cathy shares how important it is to do small things of symbolic value to build trust as a new leader. In fact, it was the trust that Cathy intentionally built from day one as Commissioner that allowed her to quickly and successfully negotiate a groundbreaking Collective Bargaining Agreement; and then execute an entire WNBA season in the “wubble”.

Cathy dives into the wubble life, and also talk about how WNBA plyers used their platform to drive social justice issues during a time when our country was plagued by racial unrest. And of course, we can’t talk to Cathy without discussing the orange hoodie movement – a marketing strategy that became a symbol of more than just women’s basketball!

Cathy is a woman who ascended to the highest levels of leadership – but she never chased a title or position - she instead aspired to LEAD. I think that’s such an important point for us to remember. Not everyone can be a CEO, she says, but everyone can be a leader! Cathy and Patti discuss all of this and SO MUCH more in this passion-packed conversation – you don’t want to it miss!

We hope you enjoy our conversation, and remember, we are Women Leaders!

Head to womenleadersincollegesports.org for more about us and to become a member!

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