To the Top

CHAPTER 7The Relationship Infrastructure

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

—Muriel Strode (American poet)

Shards of broken glass ceilings surround Sarah Mensah.

In 2021, she became the first Black woman to hold Nike's vice president general manager role for North America, the sports retail giant's most important market. She was also the first Black woman to lead its Asia, Pacific, and Latin America operations. For almost two decades before joining Nike, Sarah worked her way up from corporate sales manager at the Portland Trail Blazers to become executive vice president and chief operating officer of the NBA franchise – one of the highest‐ranking women executives in the testosterone‐charged professional sports league. Sarah's leadership style is collaborative, empowering, and inspiring. It's her mission to bring other women forward, and she's well‐known in the industry for mentoring and promoting diverse and underrepresented talent within her leadership team.

“I make it an active practice of saying to women: You could lead this, you could be the one,” Sarah told me. “It's so important for people to hear that. You shouldn't have to be a unicorn. I absolutely love to reinforce for all the brilliant women that I see and talk to regularly that they have that capability and could very well get there.”

Sarah was echoing the passion for mentoring and coaching that drives so many of the great women leaders I met during the ...