Cathy Engelbert (1986)
Career Highlights - Basketball
- Junior Year
- Second-Team All-East Coast Conference
- ECC All-Tournament Team
- Senior Year
- Second-Team All-East Coast Conference
- ECC All-Tournament Team
- 145 Assists – 8th in Single-Season History
- 5.2 Assists/Game – 9th Single Season
- 74 Steals – Tied 8th in Single Season
- 2.6 Steals/Game – Tied 9th in Single Season
- 191 Career Steals – 7th All-Time
- 1.9 Career Steals/Game – 7th All-Time
- 3.0 Career Assists/Game – 10th All-Time
- .499 Career Field Goal Percentage – 5th All-Time Lacrosse
- First-Team All-East Coast Conference (Defense) PAIAW Division All-Star
- Patriot League Rookie of the Year
- First Team All-Patriot League
- NFCA First Team All-Region
- Letterwinner
Career Highlights - Lacrosse
- Junior Year
- First-Team All-East Coast Conference (Defense) PAIAW Division All-Star
- Philadelphia All-College Team
- Brine/IWLCA Regional All-American
- USWLA All-American
- Selected to the United States National Squad
- Senior Year
- First-Team All-East Coast Conference (Defense) PAIAW Division All-Star
- Patriot League Rookie of the Year
- First Team All-Patriot League
Career Highlights - Professional
- CEO, Deloitte (first female CEO of a Big Four firm)
- WNBA Commissioner (first-ever commissioner)
Engelbert in the Media
- Patriot League Trailblazer Series: Cathy Engelbert
- Lehigh alumna Cathy Engelbert '86 appointed first WNBA Commissioner
Engelbert graduated from Lehigh in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting. She was a member of the Engineers' women's basketball and lacrosse teams and served as a senior captain for both squads. On the court, she played for former Lehigh coach and Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Muffet McGraw, helping lead Lehigh to an East Coast Conference title in 1986 and was a Second Team All-Conference honoree in 1985. She finished her career with 861 career points, an average of 8.8 points per game, averaged 2.9 rebounds per game and held a career field goal percentage of .498.
In July of 2019, Cathy Engelbert was named the first-ever Commissioner of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and is charged with bolstering visibility for the sport of women’s basketball and leading the business through transformation.
Stepping into the role of WNBA Commissioner, Cathy executed a historic player-first Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2020 which tripled the pay of top players and provided an array of progressive benefits. She has built and socialized a new economic framework to drive league growth and stakeholder success. Cathy led the longest tenured women’s professional sports league in the U.S. through its 25thanniversary season and through the COVID-19 pandemic over her first two seasons at the helm. Cathy then raised $75M capital from outside investors to fund league transformation projects and establish the WNBA as a premier sports and media property.
Prior to the WNBA, Cathy retired as the CEO of Deloitte in June of 2019, after 33 years with the firm. Elected as Deloitte CEO in 2015, she was the first woman CEO in the history of a Big Four professional services firm. In her role as CEO of Deloitte, Cathy led the largest accounting and consulting organization in the United States with more than 100,000 professionals.
Cathy is a member of the Board of Directors of McDonald’s Corporation, Royalty Pharma, and the USGA Executive Committee. She also serves as the Vice Chair of the Partnership for New York City and is member of the Business Council, Councilon the Foreign Relations, and Catalyst, a global non-profit organization that promotes inclusive workplaces for women.
She has been listed as one of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women for four consecutive years, was ranked on Glassdoor’s annual Employees’ Choice Awards honoring the 100 Highest Rated CEOs, and is one of Fast Company magazine’s Most Productive People. In 2021, Engelbert was listed on the Forbes’ ‘50 Over 50’ list and Adweek’s ’40 Women to Watch’.
Portions of this bio were borrowed from Sportico
