From celebrating her 16th birthday at United Center to skipping class to take part in the Chicago Bulls’ 1997 championship-winning parade, Nadia Rawlinson would never have thought she would become the co-owner, operating chairman, and governor of the Chicago Sky franchise more than three decades later.

But after a successful stint in Silicon Valley, where she held top-level positions like Chief People Officer at Slack and Chief Human Resources Officer at Live Nation Entertainment, Rawlinson’s destiny led her back to something that had always been present in her life: basketball, even though she admits it was a surprise move.

“I made the transition to sports coming from a human capital background, I think that was a hard left turn that no one predicted. I was in the C-suites of tech companies running HR and then I go into sports?” Rawlinson exclusively told PEOPLE, which named her in “Ones to Watch in Women’s Sports” for 2026.

If we only take a bird’s-eye view of Rawlinson’s career trajectory, her background in HR and a shift to sports would seem drastic. But for Rawlinson, moving back to the Midwest and taking up her current role with the Sky helped her integrate the two, something that made sense to her.

“Sports is fundamentally a human business, and I am a business executive that came from … building cultures, being a keeper of cultures, and really understanding: How do you get the most out of people towards a specific goal?” Rawlinson said, who took advantage of her previous background to land this opportunity.

Under Rawlinson’s expertise, the Sky’s valuation grew from approximately $85 million to roughly $390 million. She also made significant developments inside the franchise, primarily the $60 million performance center upgrade. She also founded and chairs the franchise’s first Advisory Board.

Moreover, Rawlinson helped lead Chicago’s winning bid for the 2026 WNBA All-Star Weekend, bringing the best of the best the WNBA has to offer to the same place she watched Michael Jordan unfold his magic as a teenager, the United Center.

“That’s also the universe talking to you, right? There are certain things you can think about that are like, oh, it’s all in the head, but part of it is heart, part of it is faith, and the universe coming together to make your aspirations and hopes come true. And to be able to be a part of the team that’s in my hometown? I mean, I couldn’t have wished for anything better.” Rawlinson said.

Diving beyond the court, Rawlinson has been one of the more prominent executive figures in the WNBA to make the league a safer space for its players.

Last year, the Chicago Sky announced a one-of-a-kind partnership with Moonshot, an online threat protection company that helps the franchise identify and respond to serious online abuse directed at its players and coaches.

According to Moonshot’s report for a single WNBA season, they assessed 1.7 million posts, flagged 35,650 as threats, and identified 1,213 serious enough to report at once, among them 269 threats of violence and 62 incidents of AI-generated non-consensual intimate imagery.

Rawlinson told PEOPLE the Moonshot integration has helped identify and respond to online abuse directed at players.

“I really care about women. I care about women winning, not just winning on the corporate side, in any realm of life they exist in. And being an enabler of that is something that’s really important to me.” The 47-year-old said.

While the Chicago Sky has seen prominent growth beyond the court, their performances on the court tell a different story, as Rawlinson herself stated she wants to bring the WNBA championship back home.

Nadia Rawlinson is aiming to bring the Sky back to winning ways

For someone who has seen Jordan and co. lift the NBA championship six times during the 1990s, Nadia Rawlinson obviously has that fire within to make its WNBA counterpart reach those heights as well. Rawlinson told PEOPLE that she is hoping to get the Sky back to its championship form.

The Sky won their first and only WNBA championship in 2021. The next season, after a fantastic 26-10 record and finishing just behind the Las Vegas Aces in the regular season standings, the Sky failed to defend their crown and lost 3-2 to the Connecticut Sun in the semifinals.

2023 was the only year the Sky went to the postseason during Rawlinson’s era, when the eventual champions, the Aces, swept them in the first round. Since then, the Sky has finished with regular-season records of 13-27, 10-34, and 16-28 and has not been close to reaching playoff contention.

Moreover, leadership has also fluctuated. After James Wade left in 2023 to join the NBA’s Toronto Raptors as an assistant coach, the Sky appointed Emre Vatansever as an interim coach, who failed to succeed in the playoffs.

Then, Nadia Rawlinson herself announced WNBA legend Teresa Weatherspoon as the next head coach on October 12, 2023. But on September 27, 2024, Rawlinson publicly announced their decision to let go of the Hall of Famer from her duties as head coach after what had been a lackluster season, with the emergence of rookie Angel Reese as the only saving grace.

And while Tyler Marsh has not been able to live up to expectations either, Sky General Manager Jeff Pagliocca confirmed that Marsh would return for 2027, saying it would be unfair to judge him without having had healthy rosters. This makes sense, as the Sky were unfortunately riddled with injuries from the beginning to the end of the season, from Rickea Jackson’s season-ending ACL injury back in May to Skylar Diggins and Natasha Cloud’s respective knee injuries in September.

Keeping Marsh for a third season, it seems like the Sky is looking for much-needed stability that would at least help them reach the WNBA playoffs for the first time since 2023. A long offseason awaits the franchise, as only time will tell whether the Sky can return to where they think they belong next season.

As for Nadia Rawlinson, the 47-year-old wants to “do something that is bigger than myself” and “leave an imprint on the world outside of just the day-to-day, nine-to-five grind.” This is one of the reasons that led her back to the Midwest and, subsequently, basketball.

“The future is unknowable, and that’s the exciting part. We’re creating the future right now, and we’re defining it for what it should be, so I’m hoping to be a part of that architecture.” Rawlinson on the WNBA’s immense growth.