Nadia Rawlinson is the Co-Owner & Operating Chairman of the WNBA championship-winning team Chicago Sky. In the capacity of chairman, Nadia leads the ownership group & oversees all business operations, strategy, and government relations. Additionally, Nadia is an Advisor for GV (Google Ventures), a venture capital firm with $8 billion under management funding founders in enterprise, consumer and frontier technology. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for J. Crew Group, Vail Resorts (NYSE: MTN) and Save the Children, one of the world’s largest humanitarian NGOs. Nadia is also a member of the Stanford University Board of Trustees and the Harvard Business School Board of Dean’s Advisors.
Over the past 20+ years, Nadia built a career of exceptional experience across all facets of human resources strategy and development on a global scale. Most recently, Nadia was the Chief People Officer for Slack Technologies (formerly NYSE: WORK) the industry leader in collaboration software – “Slack is your new digital HQ.” In July 2021, Slack was acquired by Salesforce for $27.7 billon in one of the most significant public-to-public deals in Silicon Valley history. In that capacity, Nadia was responsible for Slack’s employee and workplace operations, including designing the Future of Work both in thought leadership and in practice. Nadia was also recognized among Future of Work global experts at Remote.com as one of the most insightful and influential voices of 2022.
Prior to Slack, Nadia served as the Chief Human Resources Officer for Live Nation Entertainment, the Fortune 500 global leader in the live events industry. As CHRO, Nadia oversaw Human Resources strategy and development for Live Nation’s 35,000 employees. Nadia is known for developing differentiated people programs, including a student loan repayment benefit that was a first in the industry and featured in Bloomberg Businessweek. Under her leadership, Live Nation was certified as a Great Place to Work® for the first time in 2016 and every year during her tenure, Forbes Magazine’s list for Best Companies for Diversity, as well as being honored as part of a small cadre of organizations to People Magazine’s Companies that Care. Prior to Live Nation, Nadia led Human Resources teams for Rakuten Americas and Groupon, respectively.
In her down time, Nadia has lectured at Harvard Business School as part of the Inclusive Leadership seminar. Nadia lives in Chicago with her husband David and their two jazz-inspired pups, Miles and Herbie. Nadia received her BA from Stanford University and MBA from Harvard Business School.
