Kim Ng knocks door down for Asian-American women looking to make impact in male-dominated sports
- NBA executive Ilene Tsao, Clippers coach Natalie Nakase and former Emory coach Christy Thomaskutty are ready to follow in Kim Ng’s footsteps
- Ng’s appointment as Marlins GM ‘is inspiring and demonstrates that I can do it, too’, says Tsao
Six months before Kim Ng made history as the first Asian-American woman to become general manager of a major sports franchise, Ilene Tsao was taking part in an annual forum discussing the Asian diaspora’s relationship with sport.
Tsao, of Taiwanese descent, is an associate manager in Global Partnerships at the NBA and met Ng in 2018 at the same forum, the Asians in Sports & Culture Symposium. She is one of a growing number of Asian women making an impact in US and global sports and whose profiles have been raised on the back of Ng’s success.
“I was very excited to hear the news and look forward to seeing Kim, who I first met in 2018 at an NBA-MLB-NFL Asians in Sports Panel, succeed as a GM,” said Tsao, who had an outstanding college basketball career with the Emory Eagles. “Seeing another Asian-American woman rise to the top of the sports industry is inspiring and demonstrates that I can do it, too.”
Ng, 52, was appointed GM of Major League Baseball’s Miami Marlins in November, having been turned down by six teams over 20 years despite being more than qualified for a management role in a white male-dominated landscape.
May’s joint NBA, NFL and MLB symposium was aimed at bringing to the fore Asian-American contributions to the sport in the US and abroad. It was co-chaired by Tsao and Gautam Kapur, of the NBA Employee Resource Group’s Asian Professional Exchange.