Up to the challenge
Lehigh graduate Engelbert guides league through pandemic
When Cathy Engelbert was named commissioner of the WNBA in May 2019, she was ready for whatever came her way.
Less than a year later, the 1986 Lehigh University graduate never could have imagined the challenges the world would face with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’ve been through the challenges of Y2K, the dot-com bubble, the crisis around Enron that led to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the financial crisis of 2008-09, the Great Recession and other personal and professional crises,” said Engelbert, named one of the Most Powerful Women numerous times by Fortune Magazine. “But nothing compares to the enormity of the impact of this pandemic — both health and economic.”
Throughout her business career, Engelbert’s leadership has been even stronger amid challenges. A former CEO of Big Four accounting firm Deloitte, Engelbert is embracing that she can make a difference.
“One of the things I feel Deloitte does really well is scenario planning,” said Engelbert. “Right as I was moving on to the WNBA, we were reading Wall Street economists predicting an economic downturn in the next 18-to-24 months. But no one ever thought it would come from a global health pandemic.”
Even before the NBA shutdown on March 11, Engelbert and her staff started planning and thinking about what the WNBA draft and 2020 season would look like.
“When COVID-19 began to spread, we rolled up our sleeves immediately,” she said.
The pandemic hasn’t changed Engelbert’s
hopes and plans. It’s just made them more challenging.
In mid-April, the WNBA became the first professional league to hold its draft, virtually. It aired on ESPN and saw Engelbert announce the picks from her home.
“The room is now affectionately referred to as the ‘draft room’ by my kids,” she said. “My daughter says, ‘It’s Mom, live from the bookshelf.’
“We only had about three weeks to figure out all the draft details. It was March and our draft was scheduled for April 17. We really wanted to keep that date.
“We had planned to have it live in New York … then it all changed.”
The draft ended up being a big success.
“So many things could have gone wrong, yet so much went right,” said Engelbert. “I’m also really proud of what we did around the three honorary draft picks, the three girl basketball players killed on the helicopter with Kobe Bryant back in January. I’m proud of ESPN, and my team did an amazing job.”
Engelbert, one of the most influential businesswomen in the country, credits her college years with helping to mold her.
“I tell people all the time about the leadership skills I learned at Lehigh,” she said. “I was really shy when I got on campus back in August of 1982 and I came out of Lehigh a confident young woman.
“Did anyone ever think when I was at Lehigh that I’d become the CEO of a 100,000-person firm? I’m sure not. But that’s the funny thing about life,” Engelbert continued. “I had a great family foundation, a great athletic foundation and then Lehigh gave me a great academic, social and athletic foundation to drive my leadership to what it ultimately became.”
Engelbert and her team have turned full attention to the 2020 WNBA season, which is currently on pause. Right now, she is focused on extensive scenario planning.
“One thing I learned throughout my career is that one of the number one things to do in a crisis is to have some courage and take some risks,” said Engelbert. “If you take no risks, you come out of the crisis less strong. We need to plan for a variety of outcomes for this season — whether it’s no season, a season with fans or a season without fans — all with setting us up for the future.
“We were going to have a 36-game season and it’s probably going to be less than that. We’re looking at all the permutations and iterations of the scenarios and getting ready to execute on them.”
Many variables are out of her control, but Engelbert is relishing the challenge.
“I was joking with one of my former Deloitte colleagues that I don’t think I’ve ever worked harder than I’m working right now to try to make sure we have a semblance of a season and get all the appropriate medical protocols and logistics done to support these women going forward,” she said. “It is a true war against something most business leaders have no control over. One thing I know is the decisions you make in the middle of the crisis — whether they work out or not — will be talked about for five to 10 years, especially the ones that work.”
Although a pandemic this disruptive to everyday life hasn’t happened in the U.S. in more than a century, Engelbert has plenty of business experience to draw on to help her, and the WNBA, navigate these challenging times.
“A crisis tends to accelerate or deepen problems that existed before the crisis, so they get amplified,” she said. “But it also presents an opportunity to work on fixing those challenges. If you believed you had a good foundation and good strategy, you’ve got to stick with that, take some risks, make decisions and move forward. “I’ll tell you, it’s not easy.”
When the going got tough on the basketball court or lacrosse field, Engelbert was up for the challenge. Now, she’s up for the challenge again, and even excited to see the opportunities that may arise from an extremely unfortunate situation.
“Fan engagement is one area I believe there’s a huge opportunity for sports,” said Engelbert. “We’ll have to figure out the future of fan engagement, whether it’s through the use of Augmented Reality or apps like tap-to-cheer or tap-to-clap.”
Innovations around the fan experience are integral parts of Engelbert’s big-picture goals.
“I was hired to help drive revenue in a different way for the WNBA, and hopefully then even more broadly for women’s sports,” she said.
The pandemic may have slowed that growth for now, but no one is more prepared than Cathy Engelbert to tackle one of the biggest challenges of our lifetime.
Justin Lafleur is a member of the Lehigh sports communications department.