Exclusive: The National Women’s Soccer League hires ex-Bumble exec as COO to run the league ‘like a business’
Good morning, Broadsheet readers! A new report finds that employer-funded childcare services can pay for themselves, a men-only club in the U.K. is facing criticism and considering a policy change, and a new COO will run the National Women's Soccer League ‘like a business.’
- Down to business. A few years ago, I published a Fortune story about Sarah Jones Simmer, a former Bumble exec whose cancer diagnosis made her realize she wanted to reach the career milestone of becoming a CEO. Jones Simmer has spent the past two-and-a-half years as the CEO of Found, a weight-loss startup. Earlier this month, she announced she was stepping down from that job.
Now, Fortune is the first to report, Jones Simmer has a new role: COO of the National Women's Soccer League. She'll be the fast-growing league's first business-oriented COO, supporting commissioner Jessica Berman. Jones Simmer starts the job next month, stepping in at an exciting—and complex—time for the league, with the San Diego Wave selling for a league-record $120 million, celebrity-backed Angel City FC reportedly seeking a new owner, and new owners and new franchises popping up everywhere from New York to the Bay Area.
“I don't often have that spark that feels like, ‘This is a rocket ship I need to get on,’” Jones Simmer told me. "But that's absolutely how I felt."
The role, in many ways, reminds her of what she did at Bumble starting in 2017, where she held the titles of COO and later chief strategy officer as she scaled Bumble and prepared the dating app business for its 2021 IPO. “I joined Bumble as mobile dating was skyrocketing,” she says. “What the NWSL is facing is similar. You're seeing skyrocketing interest in women's sports...and I feel like I'm stepping in at a really interesting inflection point.”
She says her first priority will be to “help the league run like a business,” from making more data-driven decisions to running meetings more effectively. But a league is more complex than many businesses, with stakeholders including owners and players. “The league is creating the infrastructure in which all these teams can play,” she says of the NWSL's role in the sport's meteoric growth.
While becoming a CEO was a career goal of Jones Simmer's, she says transitioning to this COO job is the right move for her today. “I think I'm going to be a better COO because I sat in that seat and I understand what it is to drive that vision forward,” she says. And what the league needs more of right now is operational efficiency, not just vision. “So many people want women's sports to succeed,” she says.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
