What happens when Black women in the business of sports get together? They build.

It’s no secret that the business of sports is lacking in diversity. Every year the University of Central Florida’s DeVos Sports Management Program produces The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) report cards on race and gender, rating professional and collegiate sports on their diversity. Over the years, leadership in professional and collegiate sports has seen very little growth in the percentage of people of color who sit in leadership positions. Shaina Wiel, Founder of Minorities in Sports Business (MiS) and Jaia Thomas, Founder of Diverse Representation (DR) have joined forces to put a dent in those stagnant numbers.

Earlier this month they announced the launch of the Diverse Sports Executive Pipeline program. The women built the program to directly address the lack of diverse executives in the sports business industry. The pipeline program accepts applications from individuals in the senior management level who are on track for a promotion to the executive level. A cohort of ten individuals will be selected to participate in a series of workshops, one-on-one mentoring, executive recruiting sessions, and a case-study. At the conclusion of the program, the cohort will be armed with the necessary leadership skills and tools to accelerate their careers to the executive level.

Wiel, who founded MiS in 2016 after she realized the potential power that lay in her group chat made up of black and brown professionals in sports, has been dedicated to diversifying the group of people who make the decisions in sports.

"For far too long the conversation around diversity, equity, and inclusion in relation to the sports industry hasn’t included individuals of color on the business side,’ said Wiel said of the program. “At MiS, we look forward to using this program to get one step closer to a better and more diverse workforce especially at the executive level."

While the athletes on the fields and courts are racially diverse, and about half of the overall fanbase is racially diverse; the executives within the industry don’t reflect that. For example, the 2020 TIDES report cards showed that only the WNBA and NBA scored an “A” or above on the race report card; meaning they were the only two leagues that had at least 30% of its leadership filled by individuals of color. Both MiS and DR were founded to not only create a community for people of color within the industry, but to also address that lack of diverse sports professionals. The brands hope that their new partnership will create an executive pipeline to address the gap of senior executives within sports organizations and, in turn, reach higher levels of diversity.

Jaia Thomas, who is an attorney and professor, says “The aim of the Diverse Sports Executives Pipeline Program is to equip professionals of color with the tools and skillsets to succeed as executives in the sports industry. Our goal is to ensure that the diversity on the court and on the field is properly reflected in the front offices and C-suite.”

Thomas and Wiel were tired of organizations using the excuses that qualified, diverse talent doesn’t exist or that they don’t know where to find it. In building this current and subsequent cohorts, both MiS and DR aim quash those excuses by preparing the talent and making them easy to find.

MiS and DR have partnered with the National Society of Black Sports professionals to assist in reviewing candidates for the program. Applications for the program have been extended to May 28th at 11:59PM EST. The cohort, program partners, and mentors will be announced mid June with the program starting July 5th. Applications can be found HERE.