Sheila Johnson
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Sheila Crump Johnson is the team president, managing partner and governor of the WNBA's Washington Mystics, a position she gained before the 2005 season. On May 24 of that year, Washington Sports and Entertainment Chairman Abe Pollin sold the Mystics to Lincoln Holdings LLC, and Johnson was named president. She is believed to be the first African-American woman to be an owner or partner in three professional sports franchises, also having a piece of the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards. Prior to her divorce from her first husband, Robert L. Johnson, she was left with an estimated $500M. Ms. Johnson is considered to be the first African-American female billionaire [1]
She is in a unique situation in sports, in that her ex-husband owns a rival team in the same WNBA division, the Charlotte Sting. She and her former husband made their fortunes by founding the entertainment network BET, and then selling it to Viacom in 1997. They have two children: a daughter, Paige, who is an accomplished horsewoman, and a son, Brett.
Johnson is currently President and CEO of Salamander Hospitality and a partner in Lincoln Holdings, LLC. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia, Chair of the Board of Governors at Parsons The New School for Design, a violinist, philanthropist and community [2].
On September 24, 2005, she married Arlington County Circuit Court Chief Judge William T. Newman which was reported the next day in long, detailed article in the Washington Post [3] and in the December 2005 issue of Ebony Magazine [4].
In the same Washington Post article, it was reported that "in 1987, Newman became the first African American elected to the Arlington County Board since Reconstruction, a position he resigned in 1993 to accept the appointment of a judgeship that led, last year, to his becoming chief judge of the Arlington Circuit Court."
