Cynt Marshall. Photo courtesy of the Dallas Mavericks website.
Dallas Mavericks CEO Cynthia Marshall (who prefers Cynt, as in Cynt the Sprint, a nickname acquired during her high school track career, according to her memoir) is among five 2023 Women Business Collaborative Trailblazer in Gender Equity and Diversity Award recipients, WBC announced in a press release.
This annual award goes to corporate leaders who make significant contributions to the advancement of diversity within their companies and business community, WBC’s CEO Gwen K. Young says.
“These trailblazers continue to further gender equity and diversity, uplifting others and creating opportunities for all women and communities.”
The WBC is an alliance of organizations, companies and individuals working together to achieve equal position, pay and power for all women in business, according to the announcement.
In early 2018, Marshall became the first Black female CEO in the history of the National Basketball Association.
Preston Hollow resident Mark Cuban, the owner of the Mavericks, hired Marshall in the wake of highly publicized, scathing 43-page report chronicling allegations of 20 years’ worth of sexual harassment and misconduct within the Mavericks front offices.
In 2019, Worth magazine named the 63-year-old former AT&T executive one of the most powerful women in the business of sports — that’s after her single year in the industry. The finance and lifestyle publication highlighted her chief accomplishments, noting that “Marshall implemented a 100-day plan to close the gender pay gap, recruit new talent, promote unsung stars and implement the human resources structure the team had desperately lacked.
“Her swift cleaning job made longtime laggards of change look inexcusable.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver sent a letter to all NBA execs pointing them to “the Marshall plan” for getting their own organizations in line, reported Bloomberg.
Marshall has also penned a memoir titled You’ve Been Chosen: Thriving Through the Unexpected. It covers her professional and personal life, including (among many more) battles with poverty, domestic abuse and cancer.
Marshall, a Preston Hollow resident, and fellow Trailblazer honorees will be recognized at WBC’s Action For Impact Annual Summit, which will be held virtually on September 20 and 21.
