WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert ‘86 announces retirement, reflects on Lehigh and her career

When WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert ‘86 moved into Lower Cents, she said she came as a shy recruit for the women’s lacrosse team.

A week into her first year, Engelbert saw a posting for walk-on tryouts to the women’s basketball team.

She said she thought to herself, “Why not?”

Engelbert said she had no idea the last-minute decision to try out for the point guard position on the Lehigh women’s basketball team would shape her 40+ year career as a female leader, CEO and WNBA commissioner.

“(Even) 30 years after I graduated, my coach, Muffet McGraw, told me she almost cut me from the team after the first day of tryouts,” Engelbert said. “Looking back now, thank goodness he didn’t cut me or I’m pretty sure I never would’ve had the success I’ve had.”

During her time at Lehigh, Engelbert became a captain for the women’s lacrosse and basketball teams, leading the basketball team to an East Coast Conference Championship her senior year, with over 861 career points.

Because of her success and leadership as a multisport athlete, Engelbert was recently inducted into the 24th class of the Lehigh Athletics Hall of Fame on Sept. 26.

Engelbert said she never thought that 40 years after trying out for the women’s basketball team on a whim, she would be back at Lehigh for her induction into the Hall of Fame.

“Lehigh gave me a triangle of amazing athletic, academic and social maturity, where I was able to feel like I fit in,” Engelbert said.

But the feeling of fitting in didn’t come naturally in the career path she chose after graduation.

Engelbert went straight from Lehigh to work for Deloitte in New York City, where she began as an accountant and worked her way up during her 33-year career to become the first female CEO of any U.S. big four accounting firm.

Engelbert said she would walk into many rooms with CEOs, and people would assume she wasn’t one of them.

“I’ll never forget when I walked into a CEO meeting with members of Congress and senators, and someone tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘that room is only for CEOs’” Engelbert said. “There were many instances where I was the only woman in the room, but I couldn’t let that affect my confidence in my role.”

Engelbert said she credits Lehigh for giving her the confidence to sit in a room with people who doubted her because she was a woman, despite coming in as a shy first-year.

After her 33-year career at Deloitte and a four-year term as CEO, she decided to pursue a new opportunity.

Engelbert said after she announced her departure from Deloitte, her previous coworker called her and said, “I have a perfect next act for you.”

She then moved to a role where she was surrounded by many more women, as the WNBA commissioner.

“I wrote three things on a piece of paper,” Engelbert said. “I wanted to do something different, away from the corporate world, I wanted to do something with a broad women’s leadership platform and I wanted to do something I had a passion for.”

Engelbert became the commissioner in 2019, where she originally signed a three-year contract. However, she ended up serving more than seven years in the role.

Engelbert said having a season during the COVID-19 pandemic in her first year as commissioner was an existential moment for the league, which put her in crisis mode and undertook extensive scenario planning.

“I felt even more connected to the league after getting through the pandemic and having a successful season that year,” Engelbert said. “Every stone we turned over needed a much bigger transformation than I thought, so I found myself continuously signing on for an extra year without even thinking about it.”

She entered the WNBA during a massive period of growth and potential.

“We hardly had anyone watching and attending games, so the first thing I did was implement a three-pronged strategy,” Engelbert said. “We wanted to prioritize our players, we needed owner and stakeholder success and fan engagement and importantly, we needed household names and games of consequence.”

After Engelbert recently announced her retirement from the league at the end of this year, the WNBA has seen its revenue increase significantly, with the first billion-dollar franchise being the Golden State Valkyries.

Engelbert said over the past few years, there’s been a confluence of positive elements in women’s sports that are finally coming together, especially within the quality of the game, historically high levels of viewership and brands finally recognizing the benefits of supporting the talent in the league.

“The WNBA proved that you can increase the value of a franchise and be a legitimate sports, media and entertainment property if you just have the right timing, capital and people to make it happen,” Engelbert said.

Because of the hypergrowth of the WNBA during Engelbert’s tenure, the league will expand from 12 teams to 18 teams by 2030, bringing in major cities like Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia.

Engelbert said she plans to be a season-ticket holder once she retires, to keep up with all of the growth she was so fortunate to help create.

“I’m excited to have more time to myself,” Engelbert said. “I feel like I’ve earned the right to watch from the stands to enjoy the games.”