Good morning, Broadsheet readers! A new report finds that employer-funded childcare services can pay for themselves, a men-only club in the U.K. is facing criticism and considering a policy change, and a new COO will run the National Women’s Soccer League ‘like a business.’
– Down to business. A few years ago, I published a Fortune story about Sarah Jones Simmer, a former Bumble exec whose cancer diagnosis made her realize she wanted to reach the career milestone of becoming a CEO. Jones Simmer has spent the past two-and-a-half years as the CEO of Found, a weight-loss startup. Earlier this month, she announced she was stepping down from that job.
Now, Fortune is the first to report, Jones Simmer has a new role: COO of the National Women’s Soccer League. She’ll be the fast-growing league’s first business-oriented COO, supporting commissioner Jessica Berman. Jones Simmer starts the job next month, stepping in at an exciting—and complex—time for the league, with the San Diego Wave selling for a league-record $120 million, celebrity-backed Angel City FC reportedly seeking a new owner, and new owners and new franchises popping up everywhere from New York to the Bay Area.
“I don’t often have that spark that feels like, ‘This is a rocket ship I need to get on,’” Jones Simmer told me. “But that’s absolutely how I felt.”
The role, in many ways, reminds her of what she did at Bumble starting in 2017, where she held the titles of COO and later chief strategy officer as she scaled Bumble and prepared the dating app business for its 2021 IPO. “I joined Bumble as mobile dating was skyrocketing,” she says. “What the NWSL is facing is similar. You’re seeing skyrocketing interest in women’s sports…and I feel like I’m stepping in at a really interesting inflection point.”
She says her first priority will be to “help the league run like a business,” from making more data-driven decisions to running meetings more effectively. But a league is more complex than many businesses, with stakeholders including owners and players. “The league is creating the infrastructure in which all these teams can play,” she says of the NWSL’s role in the sport’s meteoric growth.
While becoming a CEO was a career goal of Jones Simmer’s, she says transitioning to this COO job is the right move for her today. “I think I’m going to be a better COO because I sat in that seat and I understand what it is to drive that vision forward,” she says. And what the league needs more of right now is operational efficiency, not just vision. “So many people want women’s sports to succeed,” she says.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Joseph Abrams. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Care costs nothing. Providing benefits like on-site day care and childcare stipends to employees with children “pay for themselves,” according to new research from Boston Consulting Group and the nonprofit Moms First. The researchers found that paying for these resources led to a decrease in employee absenteeism, attrition, and lateness which made up for the cost of funding them in the first place. Axios
- Boys' club. U.K. women and the country's press are putting pressure on the Garrick Club, an exclusive London club with members such as actor Benedict Cumberbatch and the U.K.'s deputy prime minister, for a long-standing policy that forbids women from membership. Pressure hit a peak after a report from the Guardian exposed a list of the club's members earlier this month, and now the Garrick is hosting private meetings to decide whether to hold a vote to change the policy. New York Times
- Top of the ballot. Democrat Marilyn Lands won a special election on Tuesday for a historically conservative seat in the Alabama State Legislature thanks to her campaign’s intense focus on reproductive rights and in vitro fertilization. Lands’s victory in a deeply conservative state with a near-total ban on abortion access is an important metric for how important reproductive autonomy will be in the 2024 elections. Politico
- Unicorn spotting. Almost one out of every five U.S. and U.K.-based unicorns, or companies worth more than $1 billion, were founded by women from 2013 to 2023, according to the Unicorn Founder DNA Report by Defiance Capital. The report describes this as a departure from a time when all unicorns were founded by men but also reveals that the top 20 venture capital firms in the U.S. tended to prefer investing in male founders during their companies’ seed stages. TechCrunch
- Marginal gains. Research from GoBankingRates found that women earn more than men in only 40 cities across the U.S., but these cities all have particularly low median salaries for both genders. One such city is Jacksonville, N.C., where women earn a median salary of $32,000 per year compared to men's $27,000. Fortune
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz adds executive chair to her title. King Arthur Baking Company added Denise Beckles and Grace Zuncic to its board of directors. Glean announced Tamar Yehoshua as president of product and technology. Maesa appointed Patricia Huet as its chief human resources officer. Fidelity named Amanda Scipione as its head of global diversity. Zendesk hired Shana Simmons as its chief legal officer. Mathilde Collin is stepping down as chief executive officer of Front. Instacart CMO Laura Jones joins the board of Match Group as the online dating giant reaches an agreement with Elliott Management.
ON MY RADAR
Body acceptance advocate receives apology from WeightWatchers CEO: ‘It felt like relief’ Today
Before Caitlin Clark dominated women’s basketball, she dominated these boys Wall Street Journal
The Carol Burnett Show inspired her career in comedy. Now Kristen Wiig is starring in a TV show with her hero Vulture
PARTING WORDS
“I have a feeling that people can say, ‘Look at what she’s doing at her age! If she can do it, I can do it.’”
—Actress Jane Fonda on her continued climate change advocacy at 85 years old
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