This year marks the 10th anniversary of BMO for Women. In that spirit, we recently hosted an event in Chicago that focused on women transforming the world of professional sports and how that translates to women leading businesses.

I spoke with Susan Goodenow, the Chicago Bulls’ Executive Vice President, Brand & Public Affairs. Susan is responsible for what the Bulls’ brand represents in Chicago and around the globe. Her role includes driving fan development, compelling storytelling, and impact‑driven community programs.

Susan’s stories and insights kept the audience captivated. The following is a summary of our conversation.

Susan grew up loving sports. After 14 years in public relations representing major sports leagues and teams, she decided it was time for a change. And as she explained, it was her time at the Red Cross during Hurricane Katrina that provided a valuable lesson.

“When Katrina hit, all of the sports leagues and sports teams came to us and said, what can we do?” Susan said. “I got a chance to work with them because I had been in sports. It reminded me of the power sports has to unify people. As difficult as it was to decide to leave sports, it was so easy to decide to come back.”

As Susan was finishing her work on Katrina, Major Leage Baseball—a former client—called with an offer to lead its business public relations group. "Even though I'd only been at the Red Cross for nine months, I said yes because I knew about the power of sports to unify people during times of tragedy and on a global scale. It can also unify parents and kids, it can unify neighbors. It has such a gravitational pull for so many different groups that I wanted to be a part of that.”

Focusing on those qualities serves Susan in her current role with the Bulls. Because, brand development for major league teams needs to be independent from the team’s performance.

“If you're in sports, as you would in any business, you have to know that you're going to be on a roller coaster,” she said. “As we look at our brand, we have to think about performance-agnostic approaches. We go back to what is at the core of the Bulls’ brand. We did some work several years ago and identified our brand purpose, which is to inspire and unite people through legendary experiences. That's something we do every day.”

Women in sports have been in the spotlight like never before. Athletes like Caitlin Clark, Simone Biles and Alyssa Liu are bona fide celebrities. But women are also a force behind the scenes as investors, owners, and front office executives. I asked Susan what impact she believes the increased presence of women will have in the long term.

"Representation matters,” she said. “There are so many women that come from so many different directions. There are so many different places where there are opportunities for women, no matter your professional interest, no matter your professional path, where you're going to have the opportunity to be part of sports or sports-adjacent entities if you choose. And that’s super exciting.”

When we talk about impact in business, we often focus on financial metrics like revenue or market share. I asked Susan for her take on what impact means in relation to her role.

“Impacting the communities where we live and work is important to our organization,” she said. “It is not the responsibility of one particular department or a couple of people. We are constantly thinking about how we can use our resources to meet our brand purpose. That comes through the work that we do in the community, whether that is Girls' Day of Play, whether that is a court refurbishment that we're talking about doing this year.”

When it comes to her own personal impact, Susan hopes to inspire other women to step up and put themselves in a position to lead.

“I hope that I encourage people to be brave and to do things that they think they can't do,” she said. “It can be as simple as: speak up in a meeting, take that seat at the table, ask the question, raise your hand. That is easy for some people. But for us introverts, for us perfectionists, that's not easy. I want to let the people I work with know that that's not always easy for me, but I still do it. And I want to encourage them to do that, because I know the more you do it, the braver you're going to get, and the more impact you're going to have.”

Susan reminded us of what authentic leadership looks like, and the incredible group of women who joined us brought a level of connection and energy that made the room truly come alive. It was powerful to see women shaping sports and business come together to share insights, celebrate each other, and build new relationships. The conversations, the collaboration, and the genuine support in that room made it clear: when women show up for one another, the impact is undeniable.