Not only was Cynthia Marshall the first Black cheerleader at the University of California, Berkeley, but a few years ago she also became the first Black female Chief Executive Officer in the NBA. A lifelong pioneer, she is familiar with facing challenges.

Growing up in the housing projects of Richmond, California, she had to deal with an abusive father while her family struggled to make ends meet. Despite her personal hardships, she was a brilliant student. Her work ethic led her to earn a full scholarship to the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied business administration and human resources management.

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After graduation in 1981, she joined AT&T in California and worked as a local supervisor, before climbing the corporate ladder to upper management and leadership roles. Her dedication helped earn the company a spot in the top three on DiversityInc’s 2017 Top 50 Companies list.

In 2017, after 36 years within the organization, she decided to retire to launch her own consulting firm, Marshalling Resources, specializing in leadership and diversity.

Around the same time, Mark Cuban, owner of the basketball team Dallas Mavericks, unexpectedly persuaded her to come out of retirement and become the first Black female CEO of an NBA franchise. After several instances of sexual misconduct had been uncovered in the NBA, she accepted the challenge to clean up the league’s toxic work culture, turning it into a global standard for inclusion and diversity.

“I want to make sure I do a good job, be a good role model, and show that it shouldn’t be unusual for a Black woman to be in a job like this. We are capable,” she said. “I want to make sure I’m working and others are working to cultivate the second, third, fourth and fifth one that’s coming. I want to make sure I’m not the last. I can’t be the last, and I won’t be the last. I know I won’t be.”

Thanks to her career path and commitment, she is widely recognized for her visionary leadership, inclusion, and diversity expertise. Unsurprisingly, she has received several distinctions and awards for her work, including spots on Adweek's 30 Most Powerful Women in Sports and Black Enterprise’s Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Corporate America.