As if dominating tennis wasn’t enough, Serena Williams is looking to continue to dominate off the court in the corporate arena. Williams will be joining the Silicon Valley board room soon.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion, and soon to be mom, was appointed to the online poll-taking service company Survey Monkey alongside Intuit’s CEO Brad Smith.
Even though she has major endorsements with Nike, Gatorade, Wilson, and has ownership with the NFL’s Miami Dolphins with her sister Venus, she says she wants to help diversify tech company workforces.
“I feel like diversity is something I speak to. Change is always happening, change is always building. What is important to me is to be at the forefront of the change and to make it easier for the next person behind me.” -Serena Williams
Typically, an individual appointed to a company’s board doesn’t have a ton of leverage in the decision making process of a company. However, individual board members of major companies do receive considerable compensation for their contribution. There has been no word yet on how much Williams will be compensated.
I for one am glad to see Serena continue to make waves off the court as well as on the court. Not only is she tennis’ all-time leader in grand slam singles titles in the open era, she is also about to be married to Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit, and she is pregnant with her first child. Hopefully her business prowess will inspire future athletes to build their wealth for their families’ future generations.
Sports Talk with Dāvon 