LEADER PROFILE
3 of
5
Karen Bryant President & CEO, Seattle Storm
Michelle Bates
F
or Karen Bryant, ’02, being a student athlete at UW helped set her on the path to her current leadership position as CEO of the Seattle Storm. Bryant transferred from Seattle University to the UW as a junior and played basketball under former UW women’s basketball coach Chris Gobrecht. “My time under Chris Gobrecht had a tremendous impact on me. Being part of a team in sports in general is a lab for life. I had to learn leadership and teamwork. I had to fight through adversity, deal with injuries and losses. Gobrecht was very demanding and you have to find your purpose when you are working with someone vocal, demanding and competitive,” says Bryant. While results are important, Bryant says the leaders she admires are defined not only by a combination of business results and the
highest level of character and integrity, but also by their ability to inspire and mentor others. When Bryant was a student she worked for Janet Donelson, who was Director of Capital Projects at UW for more than a decade. “I recently saw her and told her that as a young 20-year-old I looked up to her. She balanced her career and family life. She ran successful projects. I watched her resolve conflicts. Janet gave me opportunity and she believed in me,” recalls Bryant. During her tenure the Storm has had four different owners, so much of Bryant’s leadership has involved crisis management. As ownership has stabilized, she has worked on building the organization and its management team. With that accomplished, she is now focusing on long-range planning and growth.
the story of diversity at UW
9