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00:00 Occasionally, you find somebody that basically transcends the day-to-day warfare that is
00:10 individual sports and the battle for the final dollar, and we found it.
00:14 Stacey Allister, what a glorious career.
00:17 The CEO of the WTA through 2015, now runs the entire USTA, the first female doing that.
00:28 That's relevant, but not as relevant as somebody who has brought a billion dollars in revenue
00:34 and a national, international media icon.
00:37 Stacey, thank you.
00:39 I'm honored to share some time with you.
00:41 Well, it was great to meet you during the Billie Jean King Cup in Delray, so thank
00:46 you for the invitation.
00:47 I'll make one clarification.
00:50 I'm the chief executive of Pro Tennis for the USDA and the US Open Tournament Director.
00:56 Lou Scheer is our CEO, and he oversees it.
00:59 He's the big show.
01:01 Yeah.
01:02 Look, we all know Lou, and Lou will not mind my overreach.
01:08 You can even tell him it's deliberate.
01:09 I was trying to test to see where we were going, although that is not the case.
01:13 My question at the beginning of this, and of course, I congratulated you off camera
01:17 for winning the Order of Canada, which I guess is the highest civilian honor that Canada
01:22 can give to one of its own, and that was last summer, so congratulations.
01:27 I know I have to call you, Your Honor, but I'll make an expense of that for the rest
01:31 of the interview, if that's okay.
01:32 That's all right.
01:33 Yeah.
01:34 When you got your MBA at Western Ontario and you were going through the educational component
01:43 of your life, did you ever contemplate that you were going to basically put your stamp
01:49 on tennis generally and women's tennis specifically?
01:53 Not while I was doing my IV MBA.
01:55 I'd been working for 12 years as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Tennis Canada,
02:01 and I'd stayed in that vertical.
02:03 I got some great advice when I entered the industry.
02:08 If you know how to sell, you'll have a competitive advantage, and that really held me in good
02:13 stead.
02:14 So, for my MBA, we did a career management, and I thought I was going to take one of three
02:19 paths.
02:20 I'd put my hand up to be the President of Tennis Canada, or I would stay in Canada and
02:30 enter into somewhere in the sport and entertainment industry, or three, I'd go international,
02:35 and I had two opportunities, one to work for Octagon.
02:40 Phil DiPicciato chased me for many years, and Larry Scott asked me to come down and
02:47 join him in Florida.
02:48 So, it was just this incremental piece.
02:52 It never was a roadmap.
02:54 It was always pushing for the next achievement, the next growth in my portfolio.
03:03 [Music]
03:05 (upbeat music)