WNBA president, Laurel Richie, will present “The WNBA: Showing the World What’s Possible,” as part of the University Lecture Series on Wednesday, March 18, 7:30 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel. Richie is responsible for setting the vision for the WNBA and overseeing day-to-day business and basketball operations. Recently, she announced that the WNBA is launching a campaign to market specifically to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered community, a move that makes it the first professional league to specifically recruit LGBT fans to its games. In her presentation, Richie will discuss her experiences in her three-decade career of developing award-winning campaigns that transform brands and drive business results. She was previously affiliated with Girl Scouts USA and Oglivy & Mather.
Laurel J. Richie has more than three decades of experience in consumer marketing, corporate branding, public relations, and corporate management, with a long track record of developing award-winning campaigns that transform brands and drive business results. As President of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), she is responsible for setting the vision for the WNBA and overseeing all of the league’s day-to-day business and basketball operations. During her three years at the helm, Boost Mobile signed on as league’s first marquee partner, ESPN extended their broadcast partnership through 2022, and the league reached a new collective bargaining agreement with the players and their union.
Prior to joining the WNBA in 2011, Richie was Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Girl Scouts of the USA, where she was responsible for Girl Scouts of the USA’s brand, communications, publishing, marketing, and Web-based initiatives. She also spent 20+ years at the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather, where she worked on a series of campaigns for prominent clients, including American Express, Pepperidge Farm, Pond’s, Huggies, and Kotex. She sat on Ogilvy New York’s Operating Board and continues to serve on the agency’s external Diversity Advisory Board.
Richie’s pro-bono clients have included the Museum for African Art, the Hospital for Special Surgery, and the New York City Commission on Human Rights. In addition, she has mentored young women and girls as part of Big Brothers Big Sisters, the 4A’s Multicultural Advertising Intern Program, Xavier University’s Youth Motivation Task Force, and the Advertising Educational Foundation.
Richie is a recipient of the Black Girls Rock Shot Caller Award, the YMCA’s Black Achiever’s Award. She is a recipient of Ebony magazines’s Outstanding Women in Marketing and Communications and named to their Power 100 List. Most recently, Black Enterprise named her one of the Most Influential African Americans in Sports.
Richie lives in New York City. She has a bachelor’s degree in policy studies from Dartmouth College where she currently serves on the Board of Trustees.