UC Berkeley Haas takes the lead in advancing equal pay, women’s sports leadership

Sarah Bartholomae and Sabrina (Bean) Rodriguez, both MBA 26, spent months planning the inaugural Haas Sports Business Club “Women in Sports” conference held last September.

The event sold out—a success that underscores a burgeoning interest in women’s professional sports and growing demand to train new leaders in the field. It’s been a long time coming, but athletes like Indiana Fever All-Star WNBA player Caitlin Clark are finally taking the spotlight—and UC Berkeley Haas students, faculty, and alumni have stepped up efforts to build more equality, visibility, and support for women athletes.

New Leadership Academy for Women’s Sports

Kellie McElhaney, executive director of the Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership (EGAL), which helped promote the conference, said women’s sports have a “special sauce”: positive community impact, role models, inclusive fan engagement, and purpose.  

Recognizing the need for professional development for athletes and business leaders to drive the industry, EGAL has been working over the past 18 months to develop the new Leadership Academy for Women’s Sports. The program, in partnership with Berkeley Executive Education, launches in March 2026 as a three-day intensive course aimed at people working in the women’s sports industry or those looking to enter the field. 

“The goal of the program is to continue to drive profit in women’s sports at the same time as driving purpose,” she said. “It also lays the groundwork for a broader vision to create professional development opportunities for those working in women’s sports, as well as for former athletes, beyond the playing field.”

Massive salary gaps

Pay gaps between male and female athletes can be stunning. The starting salary for top WNBA draft pick Caitlin Clark, for example, was $70,066, compared to the average starting salary for an NBA rookie player of about $1.16 million. Warriors star Steph Curry earns nearly $60 million. These same disparities exist for the people behind the scenes. “There’s still a significant salary gap between what somebody working in the WNBA office makes versus somebody in the NBA office,” McElhaney said.

In 2022, McElhaney launched a course for student athletes, Leadership and Personal Brand, in large part to address the changes brought about by Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) in college sports. In 2019, legislation passed—first in California, then later throughout the NCAA—allowing college athletes to earn compensation for the use of their NIL via sponsorships. No longer are questions about agents, contracts, and taxes part of a hypothetical future: student athletes face them as students. The first class drew 48 students, most of them Cal athletes. 

Financial literacy for athletes

The course was among longstanding efforts at Haas that have focused on supporting the financial futures of Berkeley’s student athletes overall. Professional Faculty Member Steve Etter, a pioneer in this area, has taught Financial & Business Literacy for the Professional Athletes as an independent study for years, turning it into a full-fledged class in 2024.

This has allowed Etter to expand the course from six-to-12 potentially high-earning athletes to hundreds of Cal student athletes—a mix of hopeful NFL, NBA, WNBA, and Major League Baseball, along with swimmers, golfers, and water polo players. 

Over the years, Etter has worked with Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff, former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch, and pro golfer and PGA champ Collin Morikawa, BS 19. Layshia Clarendon, BA 13 (American studies), who played 11 seasons in the WNBA, credited the class with her basic understanding of investing when she entered the league. Five-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer Missy Franklin, BA 17 (psychology).

Etter said he supports McElhaney’s work to expand offerings focused on professional leadership for women’s professional sports. “We need to have equal pay for women across the sporting, social, and business sectors,” he said. “My focus continues to be promoting gender equality in all offerings at Haas.”

Etter also pointed to the success of Haas alumna Carolyn Piehl, BS 15, a four-time NCAA champion swimmer and team captain, who took Etter’s independent study and has since launched Win your Wealth, which focuses on financial literacy for college and professional athletes. Piehl’s company hosts team workshops, one-on-one coaching sessions, and offers The Money 1.0 Course, tailored to high school athletes, and the Money 2.0 Course for college and former athletes.

Building a sports business community at Haas

Bartholomae and Rodriguez said that as 2nd-year Haas MBA students, they wanted to create a new conference where people could feel a sense of community—and leave with at least one new connection or idea that excited them. 

Sports have played important roles in both their lives. Bartholomae was captain of the varsity swimming and diving team as an undergraduate at Middlebury College and a women’s sports investment intern at Earlystone investment management firm during her first year at Haas. Rodriguez, a former Division 1 NCAA field hockey captain, worked as an MBA strategy intern at Dick’s Sporting Goods last year.

Rodriguez says she got the idea for the conference after attending the ESPNW Sports Summit last fall. Energized by networking with people in the sports business community, she and Bartholomae decided to create something similar at Haas. 

The panels at the “Women in Sports” conference covered many topics beyond equal pay for women athletes, including an all-Cal panel that addressed issues surrounding NIL. Among the highlights was a talk by former Dallas Mavericks CEO Cynt Marshall, BA 81, the first Black woman CEO in the NBA’s history. “She’s a legend, and she just lit up the room,” Bartholomae said. Marshall also serves on the advisory board for the new Berkeley Executive Education Leadership Academy for Women’s Sports.

Bartholomae and Rodriguez hope the conference was the first of many for the club, and that it will help solidify the school’s position in the sports business ecosystem. “Our hope is that the conference continues to draw a room full of leaders, changemakers, and emerging talent ready to shape the future of sports,” Bartholomae said.