Name: Micky Lawler
Position: WTA President
Where I’m from: Netherlands
Where I call home: St. Petersburg and DC
Focusing on right now: We’ve just announced a new global partnership with Porsche, and that’s been a big focal point. What we used to call the “Road to Singapore” is now the “Porsche Race to Singapore.” Our partnership with SAP also continues to grow the role of technology in our sport and helps us focus on fans, players and media, and alternately grow the game.
Best advice: Find your passions. I use the plural in this case because you need to be very open-minded and flexible in your approach and in how you turn opportunity into possibility and, ultimately, your passions.
Exec I admire: Amazon CEO JEFF BEZOS. He’s somebody that is changing so much in the business world in the way that he views Wall Street and the way that he views possibility -- just limitless. He is totally defined by non-definition (Disclosure: Lawler owns shares in Amazon).
Must for a new hire: You try to picture yourself in the trenches with this person. Is he or she prepared for the bad days, even more than the good days? Is this person going to prepare? Does this person have values that make up character? A lot of this is about feel. That to me is even more important than skills that can be acquired.
Book shelf: The best book I’ve read in the last six months is “Shoe Dog,” PHIL KNIGHT’s story. It’s an excellent, incredible story.
First thing in the morning: I make sure that my kids and my mother are okay by looking at my phone. I see if I have text messages from them. If not, great. Then I go exercise.
Food for thought: I love all kinds of food, and there aren’t really any that I don’t like. My two big weaknesses are ice cream and french fries. Also, since I do a lot of traveling, my favorite thing is when we’re on trips we always meet at restaurants where we run into our friends. The tennis family is truly a family.
How I unwind: On the water. I love to paddleboard or kayak. I also try to exercise every morning from 6:00-7:15.
Talking tech: (The relationship with SAP) started with a focus on our athletes and performance. How that translates for us is to be able to use the real-time data we capture from Hawk-Eye technology, or from the scoring tablet on the umpire chair, and we turn that data into information which results in better performance for the players. This for us is transformational as a traditional sport.
