Cynt Marshall Shares Lessons She Learned as Dallas Mavericks CEO with HPU Students

Dr. Arden Slavov, an assistant professor of sport management at High Point University, interviewed Cynt Marshall, who serves as HPU’s Sports Executive in Residence, during a Life Skills Seminar on Coachability in the Callicutt Life Skills Theater on Jan. 30. Marshall recently retired as CEO of the Dallas Mavericks.

HIGH POINT, N.C., Feb. 4, 2025 – Just days after her retirement as CEO of the Dallas Mavericks, Cynt Marshall stepped into her new role as a team consultant and mentored High Point University students as HPU’s Sports Executive in Residence during her visit to campus on Jan. 30.

Marshall told students about how coachability and adaptability can improve their job prospects and explained the ways that humility and grit work together to build a resilient, thriving career during her Life Skills Seminar on Coachability in the Callicutt Life Skills Theater. She also spoke about professional development in sport management with freshmen and sophomores in the Nido R. Qubein School of Communication. She said she plans to spend the next 10 years reinvesting in young people, writing more books and working to make the world better.

“The ‘better’ part is spending time helping to shape the future,” she said. “Our world can be better because of the people sitting in this audience, so that’s where I want to spend a lot of my time.”

Marshall’s Life Skills Seminar drew 350 students and was the first session that allowed them to work toward earning a tuition-free certification in coachability. HPU students who attend four designated Access to Innovators sessions can earn a Life Skills certification and enhance their professional credentials.

Leading authentically 

Marshall spoke of her core values of family and faith as she advised students to set goals and find an organization that allows them to lead authentically. She related an experience from earlier in her career when an individual offered her a job based on conditions that she laugh more quietly, cut her hair and go by the name “Cynthia” or “Cindy” rather than Cynt. She turned down the offer, continued to lead as Cynt and urged students to stay true to who they are.

When former Mavericks owner Mark Cuban called in 2018 and asked her to be his CEO to transform his team, Marshall answered she had to pray about it. She did not know the business of professional basketball at that time but knew Cuban wanted her as a leader, so she laid out her vision and a 100-day plan to create the NBA’s most inclusive team with character, respect and resilience as core values. She met with every employee to learn their individual story, worked to get employees involved and had a variety of people at the table. She not only transformed the Mavericks organization but left an indelible mark on the greater Dallas community.

“A lot of us worked together to restore the brand of the Mavericks,” Marshall said. “Any vision or plan should ultimately come up with good business results.”

Marshall provided examples of the three Ls of leadership for those individuals who listen to, learn from and love their employees. Being inclusive of employees’ families also makes life better for employees so they can improve the life of somebody else, she said.

Dozens of students lined up to ask Marshall more questions after her seminar.

“My biggest takeaway was it’s not always what happens, it’s how you respond to what happens,” said Piper Geraghty, a senior marketing major from Denver, Colorado, with a minor in supply chain management. “I also wrote down when she said you can be coached until it fundamentally changes who you are. In my previous work experience, I’ve learned that you have to be coachable, but you don’t always want to be who they tell you to be.”

Gabriella Radburn, a junior sports media major from Atlantic Beach, New York, with minors in sport management and journalism, was one of the students who shared lunch with Marshall during her campus visit.

“One thing she told us is we need to stop thinking of it as a male-dominated field but more as a field where there’s just a lot of men who work. It’s important that as women we come in and we dominate, which is a big takeaway for me,” Radburn said. “We have these speakers who come often, and just hearing from this woman who’s so successful and well-rounded and the way she speaks about her love for her family and her ability to balance it all was really inspiring for me.”