Business Stewardship with Nadia Rawlinson and Michael Alter (WNBA’s Chicago SKY)

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The Road to Why

The Northern Trust Institute

28 episodes

2 months ago

From start-up entrepreneurs to multi-generational family business owners, most founders are driven to succeed for reasons well beyond making money. Whether it’s a passion for reshaping their industry, building a family legacy or advancing the causes they care most about — or, in many cases, all of the above — exploring the larger “why” of their life’s work offers insights into how successful leaders operate and what is really important to them. On The Road to Why, host Eric Czepyha, Director of Business Services at Northern Trust, speaks with business owners, entrepreneurs and visionaries about business, family, wealth and legacy and shares advice and life lessons from those who have found success in ways expected and unexpected.

All content for The Road to Why is the property of The Northern Trust Institute and is served directly from their servers with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.

Entrepreneurship

Business,

Investing

Business Stewardship with Nadia Rawlinson and Michael Alter (WNBA’s Chicago SKY)

The Road to Why

36 minutes

3 months ago

Business Stewardship with Nadia Rawlinson and Michael Alter (WNBA’s Chicago SKY)

Nadia Rawlinson and Michael Alter are co-owners of the WNBA team, the Chicago Sky.

Nadia was the Chief People Officer at Slack Technologies when the company was acquired by Salesforce in 2021 for $28 billion. She is an advisor for Google Ventures, serves on the Stanford University Board of Trustees and is on the Board of Directors for J. Crew and Vail Resorts.

Michael is President of the Alter Group, which was founded by his father and has become one of the largest private commercial real estate developers in the country. He is also the founder and a board member of the non-profit organization City Year Chicago.

In today’s conversation, we will learn:

(1:05) – What were Michael and Nadia’s formative years like?

(4:16) – How and why did Michael join the family business (Alter Group)?

(8:39) – How did Nadia define her career path after the Slack acquisition?

(12:23) – What makes for a good board member?

(15:12) – What do entrepreneurs get wrong when building a business?

(16:43) – Why did Michael decide to buy Chicago Sky?

(21:08) – What does being a good “steward” of the Chicago Sky mean to Nadia?

(24:35) – How does the organizational structure of a sports franchise work?

(29:01) – What life lessons have Nadia and Michael brought home from Chicago Sky?

(33:15) – What are Michael and Nadia’s “why’s”?