– Slam dunk. This weekend, the world’s best women’s basketball players will match up in Indianapolis for the WNBA All-Star Game. For the league’s stars, the weekend and the hype around it is a sign of how far the sport has come and how much opportunity there is for a top player today.
But 85% of the league’s players aren’t chosen as All-Stars—and despite the growing sponsorship opportunities in women’s sports, many players still must figure out what comes after their professional careers. Rasheeda Clark is a former WNBA player who has found excellence off the court, in a very different field: fast-food franchising.
Clark played D1 basketball at Pepperdine, played for USA Basketball, and was drafted in the WNBA’s third round in 2001 (she’d been expected to be a first-round pick, but suffered an injury her senior year). Between 2001 and 2003, she played for three WNBA teams—the Portland Fire, the Charlotte Sting, and the Connecticut Sun. Her time of play coincided with a change in fortunes for the WNBA as teams began folding following financial restructuring of team ownership. Of those three teams, only the Connecticut Sun is still around—although Portland’s new WNBA franchise will start play in 2026 with the same name in homage to the city’s first.
Clark’s injuries—and the WNBA’s low player salaries, around $37,000 at the time, she says—ultimately led her to leave the sport. She started looking elsewhere for the satisfaction she got from basketball’s teamwork and leadership opportunities. As an athlete, she felt she was sometimes at a disadvantage breaking into the business world; while her fellow students were interning and exploring job fairs, she had been training and traveling for games. She got into retail operations, and then was chosen for PepsiCo’s famed management training program, which helped her gain more formal experience—her business version of “training camp.”
Today she is the president of Flynn Wendy’s, the Wendy’s segment of the largest franchisee operator in the world. She oversees more than 300 Wendy’s locations, almost 10,000 employees—and $724 million in annual sales. She’s one of seven presidents within the Flynn Group, which also runs franchising operations for Applebee’s, Arby’s, Panera, Pizza Hut, Planet Fitness, and Taco Bell.
Post-retirement, today’s athletes are pursuing a range of paths, from podcasting and sports commentating, to investing and startups, to coaching and team ownership. Players are eager for more former athletes to work in league offices, too. For Clark, that didn’t feel like an option at the time. “It was almost like I had to cleanse my system of it,” she remembers. “I would have continued to try to be on a team or go, ‘Maybe I’ll give it one more shot.’ For me, it wasn’t an option. But those are very viable avenues for current players.”
She urges corporations to recognize athletes’ unique skill sets—helping those who wish to enter new industries to make the jump as she did. Athletes have a “die-hard mindset,” she says. At the same time, they know that “no one victory is won by the individual effort of one player on the team,” she says. “You’re always collaborating, learning the roles of other players on the court in order to be successful.”
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Today’s edition was curated by Sara Braun. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- PBS fights back. Congress is expected to vote this week on a proposal that would end federal support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes funds to NPR, PBS, and local public media across the country. The impending deadline has led to an influx of ads, meetings with local officials, and media appearances to garner lawmaker support. New York Times.
- Abortion travel. A provision of President Trump’s domestic spending bill that prevents Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health clinics from billing services to Medicaid could have a devastating effect on abortion travel, as clinics in states that have become abortion havens are most at risk of major funding losses and even closing health centers. The statute is temporarily blocked as it moves through the courts. The 19th
- Citi celebration. Citigroup, led by CEO Jane Fraser, shocked analysts with high second-quarter results that dramatically outperformed the market. The company’s net income of $4.02 billion climbed 25% from the same quarter last year. Citigroup said in a presentation on Tuesday that it now expects $84 billion in revenue for the full year, a figure that is on the high end of the bank’s previous guidance. CNBC
- Female-led society. Scientists have discovered evidence of one of the oldest known matrilineal societies at a settlement based in the Shandong province of eastern China. The site, named “Fujia” after a village in the province, dates to around 2750 B.C. to 2500 B.C. and, researchers say, is a sign of how norms people today consider set in stone can change. Wall Street Journal
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Disney president of global advertising Rita Ferro is now chair of the board of directors for the Ad Council, succeeding YouTube VP, Americas Tara Walpert Levy.
Lyft appointed Dana Rasmussen as chief people officer. She most recently served as the chief people and culture officer at Stitch Fix.
March Capital, a venture growth firm, appointed Melissa Montan as vice president of platform and marketing. She most recently served as senior vice president at HSBC Innovation Banking.
Zum, a student transportation provider, hired JoAnn Covington as general counsel. She most recently was the chief legal officer at Glydways.
ON MY RADAR
The work from home gender gap is wider than ever as women continue to resist return-to-office efforts Fortune
She helped launch COVID-19’s vaccine in the depths of the pandemic. Now, she’s planning her next act Business Insider
Men might be the key to an American baby boom The Atlantic
PARTING WORDS
“I don’t not care; I just don’t carry.”
— Singer Lizzo on how her self-worth has evolved as a public figure
