WiLA and TRSM team up for “Not An Old Boy” at Event Featuring Raptors’ Execs

Ted Rogers School of Management (TRSM) and Women in Leadership Association (WiLA) are teaming up to promote diversity in business.

The #NotAnOldBoy social media campaign launched at an event on February 27, 2018 featuring executives with the Toronto Raptors, Masai Ujiri (President) and Teresa Resch (VP of Basketball Operations), an organization that has distinguished itself in pro sports by hiring and promoting 11 women in front-office roles – the most in the NBA.

WiLA President Victoria Marroccoli encouraged the nearly 500 attendees to share what “Not An Old Boy” means to them using the #notanoldboy hashtag on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.  For every social media post with that hashtag, made until March 23, 2018, TRSM will donate $1 to the newly created $2,500 Not An Old Boy Bursary, and other existing WiLA student awards*.

Not An Old Boy was the theme of the 2017-18 Ted Rogers MBA recruitment campaign, but the message of inclusion, diversity and empowerment echoed WiLA’s core values.

 “As a group that embraces the movement to empower ambitious women to lead without barriers, we feel that the 'Not An Old Boy' campaign speaks to what WiLA is about and we are thrilled to partner with TRSM on this initiative,” Marroccoli says.

In the open and engaging conversation, moderated by co-anchor of CTV’s The Social and Ryerson RTA alumni Marci Ien, the packed auditorium heard Resch and Ujiri detail how inclusion of women in the organization has enhanced the winning culture of the Raptors.

Ujiri explained how hiring Resch and other women for the Raptors’ front-office was simply about hiring the best people for the job.  He wants people who are smart, know their job, and want to win, regardless of if they are a man or women.

Resch, who worked with the NBA from 2006-11 before joining the Raptors, says that leadership diversity at the Raptors started from the top down with always having a voice at the table.  She explained how picking candidates with no bias was the foundation of what the organization was about, and some of those candidates happen to be women.

For more information, go to WiLA (external link) .