Beyond the Game: Leadership, Legacy & Change with Jason Wright

Jason Wright: When you're fired and you're on the street and you don't know when your next paycheck is coming from. You need to have friends that are not tied to your career success. You need to rely on family members who love you unconditionally, and you need to engage yourself in creative pursuits that feed the soul that aren't tied to your profession. And so, I learned how to be a well-rounded person and. And to draw on those secret, hidden sources of strength that people in your job don't know about, and those have really helped me to this day. And I would not have been able to navigate the real challenge we inherited at the Commanders, the complete turnaround of that business that we needed to do from a culture and an operation standpoint, if I hadn't had that experience. 

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Makhtar Diop: Welcome to Creative development with IFC, I'm Makhtar Diop, Managing Director of the International Finance Corporation today. My guest is Jason Wright, someone who knows all about the intersection of sports, finance and development. A former professional American football player, Jason made history in 2020 when he was appointed the first black team president in the history of the NFL, the National Football League. He led the Washington Commanders through a major transformation and historic season. Now, he is taking on a new challenge: closing the investment gap in women's sports. Jason, welcome to the show.

Jason Wright: Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be on and honor to be on.

Makhtar: So, Jason, your tenure as president of the Washington Commanders, just wrapped up, and what a season it was. I've been living in DC, and it has been my home for many years, but it's the closest that they have come to a Super Bowl final in 30 years. You must be extremely proud of what the team has accomplished, at least us Washingtonians, are very impressed and proud of what you have done, with our city’s team.

Jason: What a ride this last season. And I think there are three things that I'm most proud of. You know, one was seeing Dan Quinn and Jayden Daniels so quickly build a culture of accountability and brotherhood in the locker room. I played in the NFL for seven years. It’s really hard to develop that sort of camaraderie and chemistry in such a short amount of time, but they are both singularly focused men and really humble people too, for as talented and as brilliant as they are. And it came together so incredibly well, and I had very little to do with that, yet I'm proud to be affiliated with it. Probably the two things that I am closer to and had a hand in that I'm really proud of is my business team that started off in a really rough place when I took over four and a half years ago, in a moment of crisis, they were ready for the moment. And everything took off. Revenue grew, fan engagement grew, the quality of the stadium matched the experience. And so, I'm so proud of my team for rising to the occasion. And then probably the thing you experienced the most, and that I loved the most about the season: the promise of the football team that's been in Washington for years - from the Skins to the Commanders -  it's been the great unifier. It brings people together of all races and classes and genders and backgrounds, and when we're winning as a team that is on fire. And there was such unity and camaraderie and joy around the city that I finally got to see this team fulfill the promise I saw way off on the horizon when I started four and a half years ago. And it was a great moment for me to ride off into the sunset and feel a sense of accomplishment. 

Makhtar: Now that's fantastic. You know, you don't want to take a lot of credit. But, the credit goes a lot to you, to your leadership. You have done things which are quite fantastic. You have been the first person of the black community to be heading an NFL franchise in 105, years. So, you are a trailblazer, and you did it with grace and humility. I think that has inspired a lot of people, because sometimes people have this accomplishment, but they don't have the same level of humility as the one that you displayed. And I think that your humility has been part of what has taken the Commanders to this stage. So when they just told you, okay, now you are, you are heading the franchise, what did you feel that day?

Jason: Oh, you know, it's so interesting. You mentioned humility, and I think I almost can't take credit for that posture, because I think when I was announced, I didn't think about the history of it or the significance of it. I should have at the moment, but there was so much going on with the franchise that needed to be fixed that I just focused in on the work that I had to do. And that probably came off as humble, self-deprecating, you know, not self-important, but I didn't have time to think about the historicity of the moment. But when I think about it now, in hindsight, I am very proud and I don't shy away from the magnitude of that achievement, not because of me, but because of all the people that came before me. I think of one of my mentors, Kevin Warren, who was the COO of the Vikings when they did a record-breaking stadium deal in terms of public funding and the quality of the stadium. And he led that organization in everything but name alone. He was the president of that team, so he put the proverbial cracks in that glass ceiling. And when I burst through it, I do honor to him and every other executive that came before by embracing the role of being the first black person to have that spot. And so, it is important for that reason. And the great thing about it is I was the first in 2020. When I left, there were five of us. There were five of us, and that is really rapid progress. And I'm happy to say that all five of those leaders have flourishing business operations. They are all doing incredibly well. Revenue is growing. EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) is growing. They're killing it. And that's the most important thing, I think, to show about us being in these roles, is that black intellect can drive forward returns for shareholders in the same way that everybody else can.

Makhtar: Fantastic. I mean, that's something quite interesting that you said. Personally I have been in this position where they tell you are a first of something, and like you I think that first of all, you are just the first of something, because history and the predecessors have done something before you. And secondly, there are a lot of other people around who have the same skills, and when they are given the opportunity, they can do well. And I think that what you have done by opening the door is to show that actually there are a lot of people who can do something which is similar. But I think that what you just said resonates so much with me is that when you are given those opportunities, to try to accomplish the task which is before you in the best you can is a huge motivation. And after, you know, you think about it, you say, okay, it was an important moment in history, but it was not at that time your worry. 

You did something quite exceptional. You had a career as a sportsman, you know, seven years as a running back. You attended a top business school. You never forgot that education was central to what you have to do. So, tell me where does this motivation about education come from?

Jason Wright: That ties back to my parents. My entire life, the ethos in my household was that education was the gateway to a better life for my family and any family and my entire community. They were sticklers about that, and that was drilled into me from the beginning. My dad was a former civil rights activist turned small business owner. My mom comes from a lineage of civil rights activists, and so it was all about get knowledge, get knowledge, get degrees, get influence, and then you'll be able to elevate your family. And there was always an economic lens to that. My parents weren't shy about that, that success was in part, measured by how much economic power you're able to gain for you, your family and your community. And so, you know, it's funny, I ended up being a professional football player for seven years. I remember writing my college essays about why I would never be a professional football player, because it wasn't a solid, stable career that would last me forever. That's how sober minded my parents had made me as a kid. But it paid off, because when it was time to leave football, I hadn't lost track of what actually would give me the foundation to jump into what's next. And I'm really grateful for my experience at the University of Chicago, because it shaped my mind in ways that I would never have experienced otherwise and set me up for not just a great career afterward, but a new way of thinking about life and setting up life for my family.

Makhtar: This is something quite interesting, how parents are important in what we become. And those who are lucky to have parents who have been present, who have been supporting them, guiding them, half of the achievement is coming from the values, the education that you receive at home. I want to know more about yourself, what your parents were telling you at home every day when you're coming back from high school and which came back in your mind later on, when you were in the field, or at the business school. 

Jason: Maybe I'll tell a story, because I think there are two things that my parents really drilled into me. One, they were insistent that I would be a well-rounded, well experienced kid when I left home and went into adulthood. That meant they wanted me to speak multiple languages. They wanted me to have experience in the arts. They wanted me to have accomplished things in sports. They wanted me to be a scholar, and so I might have been the busiest high school kid you'd ever seen. I was doing Saturday school, learning black history. I was taking French, c’est ma deuxième langue. I was busy, busy, busy. The net result of that was not just making me interested in lots of different things and intellectually curious, which has fueled me to this day, but also made me able to multitask and to make tradeoffs, to be able to manage a busy schedule, which ultimately was so important for me as a college athlete, and then into a busy career, including the one I'm in now. But the other thing that it created was the persistence in me to never quit. And I'll tell this story. My parents put me into Boy Scouts, and they said, if you're going to start Boy Scouts, you want to do this, you know, go camping and hiking, you're going to have to finish. You're going to have to get all the way through it. I thought that meant I’d do it for a year and get through the first year, get my, you know, tender foot badge, or first class badge, or whatever it was. I got through my first year. I didn't really like it that much to be honest. I was the only black kid there. It was sort of outside of my community. And I said, you know, I did it, Mom and Dad, I'm ready to be done. They said, Oh no, no, no. When you start something, you finish, that means you're going to be an Eagle Scout. I said, I'm sorry, that's a that's like an eight-year commitment. So my response was, I'm going to become the fastest Eagle Scout in the history of this troupe. And so I finished my Eagle Scout, in I think about four years I finished right before high school, got it done and got out. I had a rich set of experiences, but that's  what my parents drilled into me. There is no quit in me. Maybe there should be sometimes, but I have this persistence and this drive that came from them, and I carry those forward and hopefully make them proud every day. 

Makhtar: I think it's important when we achieve something, there are a lot of factors which are leading us to what we have achieved. And that story that you just told me is maybe as important as going to take your MBA, because if you didn't do that that time, you will not have the persistence of going and applying to a top business school, do the homework, try to finish it on time, get the money, pay back the loan, all these type of things that comes with education at this level. 

Jason: That’s right. 

Makhtar: So when you were applying to your MBA, what did you write in your essay? 

Jason: Ah, let me think what it was about. I think they asked me about the professional experiences that had shaped me the most, and for me that was unique. You know, I was coming to business school as somebody who had never looked at financial statements, never understood a P&L (profit and loss statement), and that was part of my motivation. You know, I was the labor union leader, one of the labor union leaders for the Arizona Cardinals, when the owners locked the players out in collective bargaining negotiations, and I felt completely useless because I didn't know how money was made. I could get in front of camera and say talking points, but that's not how the deal got done. And I wanted to understand how money was made, because no matter what I went into, I knew that's how deals got done, that's how change was made. And so, when I got to business school, they asked about the experiences that had shaped me the most. And I went back to my first year and a half in the NFL. I was undrafted, which means I entered the NFL, not being invited on stage to put up a jersey or to be welcomed in with much fanfare to a team. My agent and I had to find a team that was willing to sign me after the draft had concluded. And so I spent my first year and a half getting fired every other week. I think I got let go or cut from the roster nine times in my first year and a half, and that had the impact on me to teach me a few things. One, it taught me how to keep my confidence in the face of failure. It's really important that you still believe you can play at the highest level while humbly engaging the ways you need to improve in order to make it in the NFL. Because if you step on that field and anybody can sense that you lack confidence, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. You're going to play poorly. People are going to dominate you, and you're going to be out of the league, and you're not going to believe you can make it. I had to keep my confidence, even artificially at times, to believe I belonged. The second thing is it really pushed on that persistence that I got from my parents. I had to over and over again, get back up and come back and face the same situation I was in before where I had failed and expect a different outcome - whether that was the preparation I put in before or just a shift in mindset, faith, even if you will, that a different outcome would happen because my work would pay off over time. And it taught me how to rely on sources of identity and strength that weren't tied to my job or to accomplishment, because when you're fired and you're on the street and you don't know when your next paycheck is coming from. You need to have friends that are not tied to your career success. You need to rely on family members who love you unconditionally, and you need to engage yourself in creative pursuits that feed the soul that aren't tied to your profession. And so I learned how to be a well-rounded person and. And to draw on those secret, hidden sources of strength that people in your job don't know about. And those have really helped me to this day, and I would not have been able to navigate the real challenge we inherited at the Commanders, the complete turnaround of that business that we needed to do from a culture and an operation standpoint, if I hadn't had that experience.

Makhtar: So powerful, so powerful, my brother. So, you do these fantastic things, you're leading the commanders. And now you say, Okay, I want to go and have a new project on private equity that you are leading currently. Tell me a little bit about what you are doing in that space. I understand that you want to focus on women’s sports. I was very lucky to have on this podcast, Nadia Nadim, who is a soccer player for AC Milan, who is an amazing achiever, medical doctor, professional soccer player and so forth. And also, more recently, and she will be certainly in this series, Mithali Raj, who was a captain of the Indian cricket team for women. So I also believe, like you, on the power of women's sports to change the society, to bring equality. And I was at the last Women World Cup in Australia, and I saw how women's soccer, or football, is transforming the world. It was an amazing experience. So tell me what inspired you to have a PE (private equity fund) which is looking specifically at women's sports? 

Jason: Well, first all, that you said is 100% true, but it is also an amazing business opportunity. And I'm a businessperson. And the inspiration, the caliber of play on the field, the female stars that we have seen in sports over the years. They've been there for decades, but now the economics of the industry are matching up to the talent that's been on the pitch, court and field. For example, the Women's World Cup final. In that last world cup that you were at, there were 500 million more viewers of the Women's World Cup final than the men's. And when you go back domestically to the US, more people watched the National Women's Soccer League Final than the Major League Soccer final. More people watched the women's NCAA basketball final than the men's NCAA basketball final, and that goes down across other sports as well. It's a moment where the attention on women's sports can, support the economics of the growth and the talent that's on the pitch. And so that's actually why we're entering. Yes, it's inspiring, yes, it has the capacity to change communities and perceptions, but it also has a chance to get really good returns for our shareholders and LPs (limited partners). And that's always the core focus of what we are, what we're anchored on.

Makhtar: That's fantastic. We are entering also that space. At IFC, we've been traditionally investing - you know, this year we expect to invest and mobilize close to $60 plus billion in emerging countries, investing in agriculture, in infrastructure, banking. But recently, and that's where we come back to, your experience, and having been myself experienced in sports, and my love of sports make me think: is there a business opportunity for us to invest in sports? So we are starting to invest in in a PE Fund, which will be helping in building infrastructure, sports infrastructure in Africa, particularly multi-purpose arenas. I was just talking to some of the of the NBA team president’s like Toronto’s Masai Ujiri. He was telling me, ‘Listen Makhtar, I can bring a lot of teams in Africa, but the problem is that they will not come for one game’. And artists will not come for one concert. They need to have a tour. And what is happening right now is that they can only go in two or three countries where they will find the facilities that meet the standards that they need. So, we talked about it, and the idea came from there to work with the people to start building multi-purpose arenas that can be used later on to organize tours of musician, of artists, of basketball tournaments or things like that, or other tournaments. So, we are trying to move in the same direction as you. In your business right now. What are the opportunities you are looking at - teams, infrastructure? Where are you focusing?

Jason: Yes, and you guys, are you are onto something. And as I talk about our thesis of investment, it'll hit on a bit of the infrastructure piece that that you all are looking at as well, I think you're on to something. But there are many. There are quite a few sports funds that are operating at scale, several billion dollars in investment, but it's going across all sports, and not focused on women's and emerging sports. And then there are funds that are focused on women's and emerging sports, but they're not at scale. I think the largest is somewhere between $150 and $200 million. We are raising funds to come into women's and emerging sports at this high growth moment, to make catalytic investments in the industry. And we're looking across three different things. The first are the mature leagues where there are women's team; the National Women's Soccer League, the WNBA and the women's Super League in Europe. And we'll be in multiple teams over time in that in that tier. The second tier is we're looking at the pipeline of both leagues and talent that will get into those mature leagues over time. So, we're looking at leagues that are less mature right now, but in sports like volleyball and lacrosse and softball that we believe over time will be at scale major leagues with a ton of attention and media and media focus in the same way that those mature leagues have. And then we're investing in the talent pipeline as well. We want to invest in amateur sports franchises. Think of all the money you and I spent on our kids playing soccer on the weekends and softball on the weekends and lacrosse on the weekends. There are already companies that are profitable and growing and aggregating those and bringing them together, and we want to be the growth capital for them, which also has the ability to bring returns right back to our portfolio, because these are profit generating businesses. And college sports has a unique opportunity now that has capital needs, and we want to try to find a way to fill those capital needs. And then last and maybe what makes us the most unique, because we are trying to bring real commercial returns to our investors. This isn't a hold for 50 years, until the valuations go up a certain amount. We are looking at the businesses that support women's teams and emerging leagues. So those are the health and wellness companies that are getting better recovery technology to our players. Those are analytics companies that are helping on both the sporting and the business side to have better insights and competitive advantage for these franchises and leagues. It's professional services firms, search firms and talent agencies that can focus on women and emerging sports athletes. And then, importantly, as you said, the live, work, play, full circle, retail and residential environments that are growing up around sports stadiums in which Women play. Those have the ability to transform communities, and they have the ability to get real commercial grade returns for our investors and LPs, and so we're trying to be both transformative and financially prudent for our folks, and that's why we have a more diverse portfolio than you hear from most sports funds. 

Makhtar: That's fantastic. How much are you raising? Are you doing your Serie A, or is Serie B? Where are you? 

Jason: We're not supposed to talk about where we are. I'm learning this as a first time finance guy, but we'll do our first close in June, and we've already made our first investment, which shows you a little bit of the progress that's been made already. We are the private equity partner on the National Women's Soccer League team in Denver, the expansion team that was just awarded there. And so now I am on the ground, doing what I do best, helping that franchise grow in support of the principal owner, Rob Cohen, and we've already got record ticket sales. We've sold almost 8,000 season tickets for a 10,000 person stadium. It's a remarkable start. And the team doesn't even have a name and won't start playing until 2026, it's a good start. 

Makhtar: Fantastic. Jason, it's just a huge pleasure talking to you, and I think that what you are doing has been transformative. And I'm sure that the same way you transform the team of the city where I live, and will be the same success that you will be having in moving investment towards women's sports. Thank you so very much for joining us for this podcast.

Jason: My pleasure, my pleasure. It's an honor to be here.