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John Donahoe

President & CEO
Nike, Inc.

John Donahoe is President & CEO of NIKE, Inc. He will lead the continued growth of the Nike Brand as well as Nike’s global business portfolio, which includes Jordan Brand and Converse Inc. Before joining Nike as CEO in January 2020, John had served on Nike’s Board of Directors since 2014. Previously, he was president and CEO for ServiceNow and eBay, and he continues to serve as Chairman of the Board at PayPal. Earlier in his career, he worked for Bain & Company for almost 20 years, becoming the firm’s CEO in 1999. A former basketball player and lifelong sports fan, John received an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Dartmouth College.

Arnold W. Donald

President & Chief Executive Officer
Carnival Corporation & PLC

Arnold Donald is President & Chief Executive Officer of Carnival Corporation & PLC, the world’s largest travel and leisure company.  Their nine cruise brands — Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America, Princess, Seabourn, AIDA, Costa, Cunard, P&O UK, and P&O Australia are based throughout North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.  Carnival Corporation & PLC is included in both the S&P500 and the FTSE 100 indices and trades on both the New York and London Stock Exchanges.

Mr. Donald has been President & CEO of Carnival Corporation since 2013 and served on the board for 13 years before that.  He also serves on the board of Bank of America Corporation.

Mr. Donald spent more than twenty years at Monsanto Company as Corporate Senior Vice-President, and President of the Consumer and Nutrition sector and President of the Agricultural sector.  After leaving Monsanto, Mr. Donald was Chairman of Merisant Company whose products included the leading global sweetener brands Equal and Canderel.

Prior to Carnival, Mr. Donald was President and CEO of the Executive Leadership Council, a professional network and leadership forum for African-American executives of Fortune 500 companies, and the President and CEO of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International.

A native of New Orleans, Mr. Donald received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Carleton College, a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Washington University in St Louis, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

Mr. Donald has served or is currently on the boards of Tulane University in New Orleans, Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota and Washington University in St. Louis, The Greater New Orleans Foundation and St. Louis-based BJC Healthcare among others.

Roham Gharegozlou

CEO
Dapper Labs

Roham is the CEO of Dapper Labs, the creators of CryptoKitties, Flow and NBA Top Shot. Roham started his first startup at the age of 14 and has since funded and built over a dozen companies. Formed in February 2018, Dapper Labs was spun out of Axiom Zen, the award winning venture studio, to spread the benefits of decentralization through the power of play, fairness, and true ownership. It has raised funding from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, Venrock, Google Ventures, Samsung, and the founders of Dreamworks, Reddit, Coinbase, Zynga, and AngelList, among others.

Roham is an occasional angel investor; his portfolio includes SaaS leaders Intercom, toutapp, and teampay, among others. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and dual bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Biological Sciences from Stanford University.

Ros Gold-Onwude

Sports Broadcaster & Basketball Analyst
ESPN

Ros Gold-Onwude is a sports broadcaster and NBA and WNBA basketball analyst for ESPN. She also covers sports business and tech for Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s “The Boardroom” platform. She also served as an analyst for the 2020 WNBA “Bubble Season” exclusive streaming broadcasts on Twitter.  Since 2012 Ros has covered March Madness, the NCAA tournament and Pac-12 Men’s and Women’s college hoops in both the analyst and reporter role for Pac-12 Networks.

Prior to this, Ros worked for Turner Sports in her first national broadcasting role, covering the NBA regular season, playoffs, All Star Weekend and NBA Summer League games for NBA on TNT and NBA TV. Turner, through its partnership with CBS, also had Ros cover March Madness, the NCAA Tournament, and men’s and women’s college hoops in both the analyst and reporter role.  Before joining Turner Sports, she served as the sideline reporter for the Golden State Warriors on NBC Sports Bay Area, covering the Warriors’ run to three straight NBA Finals & two championships from 2014 to 2017.  From 2012-2014 Ros was the color commentator for the Warriors G-League team, the Santa Cruz Warriors. Ros is anchored in women’s hoops as well and was the color commentator for the WNBA’s NY Liberty from 2011- 2017 for MSG Networks. Additionally, Ros joined NBC’s coverage of the 2016 Rio Olympics as a sideline reporter for Men’s Basketball, alongside broadcasting legends Marv Albert and Doug Collins- an experience she considers one of the highlights of her career.

As a member of the Stanford women’s basketball team from 2005-2010, Gold-Onwude played in three Final Fours and two national championship games helping the Cardinal win four conference titles, as starting guard. In her final season she was named the 2010 Pac-10 Co-Defensive Player of the Year, ending her Stanford career as the school’s all-time leader in games played. Following her days at Stanford, Gold-Onwude was selected as a member of the Nigerian national basketball team, which advanced to the semi-finals of the Fiba-Africa Olympic Qualifier tournament in 2011.

A native of Queens, NY, Gold-Onwude earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications, followed by a Master’s Degree in Sociology of Organizations, Business, and the Economy, both from Stanford University.

Ros’ passions include mentoring young girls, working with women in business, raising awareness for mental health issues and developing opportunities for the youth in Africa. She has spearheaded several panels around the country, focusing on women and minorities in business as well as women working in male dominated fields. Some of her favorite moments have included working with college students, including students from the Atlanta area HBCUs, and student athletes nationwide, on developing careers in sports and sports media.

For multiple years Ros has visited Africa to work with youth on developing both basketball and life skills as an active participant of the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders Program and NBA Africa Game, in South Africa. In December 2018 she returned to Nigeria to work with the Hope 4 Girls Camp, a girls only basketball camp, in which she spoke about the value of hard work, self-love, women supporting women, and the pride in being an African women. During the 2020 pandemic Ros has collaborated with NBA Africa to virtually connect with and inspire Nigerian youth and coaches.

The summer of 2020 sparked a need for all of our voices to be heard. Ros created and hosted numerous digital series, virtual interviews and events with WNBA and NBA players and executives around areas of passion including racism, sexism, sexuality, social justice, police brutality, civic engagement and voting.

Jason Kilar

CEO
WarnerMedia

Jason Kilar is a technology and media executive/entrepreneur that has invested his career in the creation, building and/or scaling of missionary companies that obsess over customers.

Three days after his final graduate school exam in the spring of 1997, Jason was fortunate to join a relatively small, private company that sold books over the internet. Over the next nearly 9 years, Jason served in a variety of leadership roles at Amazon.com. Jason ran Amazon’s books, music, and video businesses across North America and, following that, was responsible for Worldwide Application Software (which included Amazon’s Marketplace businesses and the original designs for Amazon Prime and Fulfillment by Amazon).

After Amazon, Jason became the founding CEO of Hulu, the award-winning online video service. In partnership with a world class team, Jason grew Hulu from its inception in 2007 to over $1 billion in revenue in 2013.

In the fall of 2013, Jason co-founded and became CEO of Vessel, a next-generation online video service backed by Benchmark, Bezos Expeditions, and Greylock Partners. Vessel was acquired by Verizon Communications in 2016 such that Vessel’s technology and product could power Verizon’s over the top video efforts. Jason began his career with The Walt Disney Company in 1993.

He received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1997 and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Jason has served on the Boards of DreamWorks Animation (acquired by Comcast) and Brighter (acquired by Cigna) and currently serves on the board of Univision Communications.

Jason is an active investor and advisor to early stage companies in Silicon Valley, where he also sits on the boards of Opendoor (a leader in online residential real estate) and Wealthfront (a next generation financial services company).

Philanthropically, Jason served on the board of Management Leadership for Tomorrow for over 10 years and currently serves on the board of Habitat for Humanity International.

Jason is a listed inventor on 9 patents related to digital media and digital advertising technologies.

More important than any of the above, Jason is lucky to be married to his wife Jamie for 23 years and counting. They are doing the best they can to raise four good kids.

Kyle Korver

Former NBA Player

With over 17 years of experience in the NBA, Kyle Korver has cemented his role as one of the best shooters in basketball history. A 2015 NBA All-Star, Korver was a relentless playmaker in clutch situations and is known for his pinpoint accuracy beyond the arc. He currently holds league records for highest 3-point percentage in one season and for the most seasons leading the league in three-point percentage. Korver also ranks fourth on the league’s all-time list of 3-pointers made – behind only Ray Allen, Reggie Miller and Stephen Curry.

Korver had a historic collegiate career at Creighton University where he still holds the school’s single-season records for three-pointers made, three-point percentage, and free-throw percentage. In 2018, Creighton retired his jersey number.

Off the court, Korver has been recognized for his work ethic, integrity and gracious character, and was honored with the NBA Sportsmanship Award in 2015. Looking to help advocate for his teammates and those in the Black community, Korver documented his experience with white privilege in a personal essay in The Players’ Tribune, which garnered national recognition and initiated a conversation around systematic racism. He continues to leverage his platform to speak with corporations, universities, associations and even the Vatican about allyship and the importance of diversity and inclusion. He has been an active voice supporting the Black Lives Matter movement as he participated in protests and worked directly with Wisconsin legislature following the assault of Jacob Blake.

His advocacy efforts are put into action through the Kyle Korver Foundation, his charitable organization that utilizes a grassroots approach to enact change. Through the foundation, he has supported many nonprofits in the cities in which he’s played, such as Helping Hands Rescue Mission and Abide.

Cynthia Littleton

Co-Editor in Chief
Variety

Cynthia Littleton is Co-Editor in Chief of Variety. She has covered the television beat for more than 20 years. She began her career at United Press International, followed by stints at Broadcasting & Cable magazine, Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter, where she rose to Editor before rejoining Variety in 2007. Littleton co-hosts with Andrew Wallenstein Variety’s weekly podcast “Strictly Business,” featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of entertainment. Littleton is the author of “TV on Strike: Why Hollywood Went to War Over the Internet” (Syracuse University Press, 2013), the definitive account of the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike and the impact of the disruptive digital advancements that fueled the labor strife. She is also the co-author with Susanne Daniels of “Season Finale: The Unexpected Rise and Fall of the WB Network and UPN” (HarperCollins, 2007). Littleton edited the essay collection “What I Told My Daughter: Lessons From Leaders on Raising the Next Generation of Empowered Women” with Nina Tassler (Simon & Schuster, 2016).

CJ McCollum

NBA Player
Portland Trail Blazers

The 2016 Most Improved Player of the Year and a 2018 Western Conference Player of the Week, CJ is one of the most electric shooters in professional basketball. His offensive prowess paired with his contagious charisma has quickly transformed him into a league wide fan favorite. Engaging as he is intelligent, McCollum can be found putting his journalism degree to work as he is the host of the top-rated basketball podcast, “Pull-Up with CJ McCollum”. A true believer in paying it forward, McCollum continues to inspire aspiring journalists through “CJ’s Press Pass”, a journalism-based mentorship program that provides one-of-a-kind opportunities for students looking to get involved in the media. He also works with local Boys & Girls Clubs in Portland to develop “CJ McCollum Dream Centers”, which are innovative learning rooms that provide a safe space for underserved youth to learn, explore, create, and grow. With a growing passion for wine and an interest in learning more about the wine industry, McCollum launched his wine brand, McCollum Heritage 91, in partnership with local Portland winery Adelsheim Vineyard in the fall of 2020. As reflected through his work and commitment to others, McCollum is dedicated to leaving a legacy both on-and-off the basketball court.

Nneka Ogwumike

WNBA Player
Los Angeles Sparks;
President
Women’s National Basketball
Players Association

Besides being a former No. 1 overall pick, WNBA MVP, champion, six-time All-Star, and one of the most well-respected players in the WNBA, Nneka Ogwumike’s thoughtful leadership ushered the league to the forefront of the Social Justice Movement. As President of the WNBA Players Association, she was part of the vanguard that led the way to a new landmark collective bargaining agreement, marking one of the most transformative periods in history for the WNBA and women sports as a whole. She also played a key role in the strategic planning of the 2020 WNBA season at IMG Academy. Her leadership on and off the court earned her back-to-back WNBA Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Awards in 2019 and 2020. Ogwumike was also recently named one of the 2020 LA Sports Council Sportspersons of the Year, along with Lebron James and Mookie Betts.

Linda Rendle

Chief Executive Officer
The Clorox Company

Linda Rendle is chief executive officer of The Clorox Company, a position she assumed in September 2020.

During nearly 20 years with the company, Rendle has held numerous senior leadership roles. Most recently, she served as president, overseeing all the company’s businesses, corporate and business development, corporate strategy, and the five core global functions – Marketing, Sales, Product Supply, Research & Development and Information Technology. Previously, she was executive vice president – Cleaning, International, strategy and operations, with responsibility for the company’s Cleaning and International segments and corporate business strategy along with the company’s five core global functions. Before that, she served in a similar role also overseeing the Nutranext and RenewLife businesses. She began serving as senior vice president – Cleaning Division in 2016, when she also joined the Clorox Executive Committee, adding responsibility for the Professional Products business in 2017.

Other roles she has held since joining the organization in 2003 include vice president and general manager — Home Care and positions of increasing responsibility within the Sales and Product Supply organizations, including vice president of sales – Cleaning Division, where she helped to develop new strategies and growth platforms for the Laundry and Home Care businesses; director of sales for the customer supply chain; and director of sales planning– Litter, Food and Charcoal. Her career at Clorox began as a senior sales analyst on the company’s charcoal and insecticides businesses.

Before joining Clorox, Rendle worked for Procter & Gamble, where she held several positions in sales management in the Boston and Charlotte markets.

She was appointed to the board of directors of Visa Inc. in November 2020.

A native of Massachusetts, Rendle holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Harvard University.

Doc Rivers

Head Coach
Philadelphia 76ers

Glenn “Doc” Rivers was named the 25th head coach in 76ers franchise history on Oct. 2, 2020 and joins the club following seven seasons at the helm with the L.A. Clippers. His 943 wins are the second-most among active NBA coaches, while ranking 11th all-time in league history.

The 1999-2000 NBA Coach of the Year, Rivers is one of eight active NBA head coaches to win an NBA title and owns a lifetime 943-681 (.581) regular season coaching record and a 91-89 (.506) career playoff record. His 91 postseason victories place him seventh all-time in NBA history.

Before joining the Clippers, Rivers spent nine seasons with the Celtics, compiling a 416-305 (.576) record and leading the Celtics to the 2008 NBA Championship with an NBA-best 66-16 regular season record. Rivers led the Celtics to six Atlantic Division titles, the 2009-10 Eastern Conference Championship and a 59-47 (.556) Playoff record.

During the course of the 2007-08 campaign with the Celtics, he received NBA Coach of the Month three times. He became the only Celtics coach since the award’s inception (1982-83) to win the award three times. He joined K.C. Jones, Jimmy Rodgers and Chris Ford as the only Celtics head coaches to have won the award.

Before taking over the Celtics, Rivers spent just over four seasons as the head coach of the Orlando Magic, earning Coach of the Year Honors in his first season for leading a team that featured four undrafted starters to a 41-41 record. Rivers guided the Magic to three straight playoff appearances from 2000-03, and overall tallied a 171-168 (.506) record in Orlando.

Born on Oct. 13, 1961, Rivers played 13 seasons in the NBA for Atlanta (1983-91), the Clippers (1991-92), New York (1992-94) and San Antonio (1994-96). He played for three of the game’s top coaches in Pat Riley, Larry Brown and Mike Fratello, and posted career averages of 10.9 points, 5.7 assists and 3.0 rebounds per game.

His teams advanced to the NBA Playoffs 10 times, where he averaged 11.4 points, 5.9 assists and 3.3 rebounds. Rivers saw action in 864 regular season games and 81 playoff games over the course of his career.

Rivers averaged a double-double in 1986-87 (12.8 points per game, 10.0 assists per game) and was selected to play in the 1988 NBA All-Star Game. He averaged a career-best 15.2 points per game in 1990-91 and scored a career-high 37 points against Seattle on Feb. 4, 1988. He also shares an NBA single-game playoff record for most assists in one half (15 vs. Boston, May 16, 1988).

Drafted after his junior season out of Marquette by the Atlanta Hawks in the second round (No. 31 overall) of the 1983 NBA Draft, he played the first eight years of his career with Atlanta, setting the Hawks’ single-season assists record with 823 in 1986-87 and ended his stint with the team as the franchise’s all-time assist leader with 3,866.

A product of Proviso East High School in Maywood, Illinois, Rivers earned the nickname “Doc” from former Marquette coach Rick Majerus when he wore a “Dr. J” T-shirt to a summer basketball camp.

Rivers played for the United States at the 1982 World Championship of Basketball, leading the U.S. to a silver medal and earning tournament MVP honors after averaging a team-best 18.6 points per game. During the summer of 2001, he served as an assistant coach for the USA Men’s Basketball Team at the Goodwill Games in Brisbane, Australia, that captured the Gold Medal.

Rivers earned a pre-law/political science degree from Marquette in 1985 and was honored by the Pro Basketball Writers with the 1990 J. Walter Kennedy Basketball Citizenship Award. Following the 1999-2000 season, Rivers was named Male Coach-of-the-Year at the Rainbow Sports Awards, which reflect not only accomplishments in the sports industry, but also the grace, dignity, commitment and humanity each individual exemplifies. In June 2013, Rivers received the Sam Lacy Pioneer Award at the 2013 National Association of Black Journalists national convention. The award is given annually to sports figures based on their contributions to their respected careers and direct impact on the communities they served.

He has long been active in the community, serving as a member of the All-Star Advisory Council for the Jr. NBA and Jr. WNBA youth basketball support program, offering instrumental guidance to the player, coach and parent training efforts for recreational youth basketball leagues across the country. Rivers participated in the 2015 Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles, taking part in the Opening Ceremonies and assisting during the basketball events.

Michael Wilbon

Co-Host
Pardon The Interruption;
NBA Studio Analyst
ABC and ESPN;
Columnist
ESPN.com and The Undefeated

Michael Wilbon is a co-host of ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption and an NBA reporter and analyst for ABC and ESPN. Wilbon left The Washington Post in December of 2010 after 30 years as a reporter and columnist to assume an expanded role for ESPN.

Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser, his former Washington Post colleague, have co-hosted PTI since the show’s debut in the fall of 2001. PTI earned Sports Emmy awards in 2008, 2016 and 2018 in the “Daily Studio” category and the show has enjoyed increased popularity and influence over time.

Wilbon joined the network’s NBA coverage in 2006 and contributes regularly to SportsCenter, Countdown, The Jump and daily coverage of the league and culture. He appears regularly on ESPN 1000 radio in Chicago and writes for The Undefeated and ESPN.com. Wilbon began his career at The Post in 1980 as a reporter and was a columnist from 1990 to 2010. In that time he also appeared as a panelist on WRC-TV-4 in Washington with legendary broadcaster George Michael. Also, he edited two books with Basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley, both of which were New York Times best-sellers.

In 2020 Wilbon was named a Curt Gowdy Media Award recipient by the Basketball Hall of Fame, and elected to the National Sports Media Association Hall of Fame. In 2017 Wilbon and Kornheiser were awarded the National Press Club’s most prestigious prize, The Fourth Estate Award, which recognizes journalists who have made significant contributions to the field. In 2009 The Nation Association of Black Journalists honored Wilbon with the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2001 he was recognized by Sigma Delta Chi, the Society of Professional Journalists, as the top sports columnist in America.

Wilbon has also been inducted into the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame, the D.C. Sports Hall of Fame, the Northwestern University Athletic Hall of Fame, and was given the Sam Lacy-Wendell Smith Award by the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism at The University of Maryland for his contributions to racial and gender equality in sports journalism.

Born and raised on the south side of Chicago, Wilbon attended St. Ignatius College Prep and graduated from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism with a BSJ in 1980. He is an inaugural member of the school’s Hall of Achievement (1997) and a member of its Board of Advisors. He currently resides in Maryland with his wife, Sheryl, and son, Matthew.

Jabari Young

Sports Business Reporter
CNBC

Jabari Young is a sports journalist best known for his coverage of the San Antonio Spurs and the NBA. He joined CNBC in October 2019 as a national sports business reporter.