Director of Synchrony Financial, Hasbro, Bright Horizons, and SeatGeek
Laurel Richie has more than three decades of experience in leadership, corporate governance, branding, marketing, and communications. A former trustee of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and chair emerita of Dartmouth College, she currently serves as director of Synchrony Financial, Hasbro, Bright Horizons and SeatGeek; chair of the advisory board of the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth; and mentor to Fortune 100 c-suite executives with The ExCo Group.
As President of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) from 2011 to 2015, she was responsible for setting the vision for the WNBA and leading the day-to-day business and basketball operations for the league and its twelve teams. Her "Path to Profitability" initiative led to a significant increase in the league's operating income and increased the number of WNBA franchises operating in the black from one to five.
Prior to joining the WNBA, Richie was Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) where she created a brand strategy for the national organization and the 112 local councils. The "Campaign for Girls", designed to revitalize this iconic brand and mark its centennial anniversary, resulted in Harris Poll Equitrend recognizing GSUSA as the 2012 Non Profit Brand of the Year.
Richie spent more than 20 years at the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather where she established a strong track record of developing award-winning campaigns that transformed brands and drove business -success. She worked on a host of blue-chip clients, including Kimberly Clark, American Express, Pepperidge Farm, Pond's, Oscar Mayer, Springs Industries and Maidenform. She was appointed to Ogilvy New York's Operating Board and upon her departure from Ogilvy, she became a founding member of the agency's external Diversity Advisory Board.
A frequent keynote speaker and panelist on Leadership, Diversity and Inclusion, Richie is a recipient of BET's Black Girls Rock Shot Caller Award, Sports Business Journal's Game Changer Award, the YMCA's Black Achiever's Award, and Ebony magazine's Outstanding Women in Marketing and Communications. Black Enterprise named her one of the Most Influential African Americans in Sports, and Savoynamed her as one of the Most Influential Black Corporate Directors.
Richie received a bachelor's degree in policy studies from Dartmouth College.