Susan O'Malley

O'Malley served as president of the Wizards through 2007. On her announcement that she was stepping down, Pollin described her as his "right hand through the past 20 years".

In 1994, Pollin named O'Malley and Unseld head of corporate advertising and sponsorship for USAir Arena, home stadium for both his teams. Shortly thereafter he promoted the pair again to head of business operations for the Washington Capitals.

In May 1991, Pollin appointed O'Malley president of the Bullets (O'Malley initially protested that she could not be team president because he was already president; he said he could find something else to be). Then 29 years old, O'Malley became the first woman to hold the position for any team in NBA history, and the third woman to be president of a major professional sports team in the US (the other two were Georgia Frontiere of the Los Angeles Rams and Gay Culverhouse of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers). As president, O'Malley oversaw the opening of the MCI Center (later renamed the Verizon Center, then the Capital One Arena) in 1997 in the Chinatown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., a project that spurred the economic redevelopment of the downtown area as well as set a new record for naming rights deals: MCI paid $50 million for a 10-year commitment. O'Malley also served on the panel that selected from fan proposals for a new name after Pollin announced that, to remove associations with gun violence, the team would no longer be known as the Bullets.

In 1986, O'Malley joined Abe Pollin's Washington Sports & Entertainment group as director of advertising for the Washington Bullets (later renamed the Washington Wizards). She initially encountered some resistance and isolation in the organization, suspected of nepotism as her father had worked closely with owner Pollin. Some coworkers refused to eat with her and at one point her car was filled with trash. But O'Malley soon developed a close working relationship with then-Bullets vice-president and NBA Hall-of-Famer Wes Unseld, who was named coach of the team the following year, which helped to solidify O'Malley's place in the organization. She was promoted to director of marketing, then to executive vice-president in 1988. O'Malley's work on marketing and promotions boosted the team's ticket sales even as the team struggled on the court; between 1988 and 1992 O'Malley produced a 25% increase in attendance, with 1991–1992 season recording the team's highest average attendance in 13 years and the most sold-out games in team history.

In 1979, O'Malley graduated from Surrattsville High School. Like her father, she attended college at Mount St. Mary's University, graduating in 1983. She earned a J.D. degree at Georgetown University Law School in 2007.

Susan O'Malley (born November 7, 1961) is an American sports executive. In 1991, she became president of the Washington Bullets team, a member of the National Basketball Association (NBA); then 29 years old, she was the first female president of an NBA franchise, and one of the first women to hold the top front-office position for a major league sports team in North America.