Donna Orender is a sports executive and a former collegiate and professional basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

 player. She was recently president of the WNBA

Women's National Basketball Association

The Women's National Basketball Association is a women's professional basketball league in the United States. It currently is composed of twelve teams. The league was founded on April 24, 1996 as the women's counterpart to the National Basketball Association...

. She grew up on Long Island, New York and was a five-sport athlete in high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

, lettering in basketball, field hockey

Field hockey

Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...

, volleyball

Volleyball

Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...

, softball

Softball

Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...

, and tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

. She is currently married to M.G. Orender and has two children, Zachary and Jacob.

College years

Orender graduated from Queens College in 1978 with a degree in psychology, followed by graduate studies in social work at Adelphi University

Adelphi University

Adelphi University is a private, nonsectarian university located in Garden City, in Nassau County, New York, United States. It is the oldest institution of higher education on Long Island. For the sixth year, Adelphi University has been named a “Best Buy” in higher education by the Fiske Guide to...

. While at Queens College she was an All-America

All-America

An All-America team is an honorary sports team composed of outstanding amateur players—those considered the best players of a specific season for each team position—who in turn are given the honorific "All-America" and typically referred to as "All-American athletes", or simply...

n basketball player.

Career

Under the name Donna Geils, Orender played three seasons in the Women's Pro Basketball League (WBL), where she was an All-Star, and one of only 20 women to play in all three seasons of the league. During that time span, she played for the New York Stars

New York Stars (WBL)

The New York Stars were a team that played for the first two of three seasons in the Women's Professional Basketball League. The team won the 1979-80 league championship in its second season, defeating the Iowa Cornets, but folded after the season ended....

 (1978–79), New Jersey Gems

New Jersey Gems

The New Jersey Gems was a franchise that played in the Women's Professional Basketball League, one of only three teams in the league to survive through all three seasons, from 1978-79 to 1980-81. The team made the league playoffs once, losing in the first round...

 (1979–80), Chicago Hustle

Chicago Hustle

The Chicago Hustle was a team in the Women's Professional Basketball League from 1978-1981. Their team colors were orange and blue. Its radio broadcaster was Les Grobstein....

 (1980–81). In 1985, she played for the U.S. Maccabiah Team. Orender's WBL career is featured in the book "Mad Seasons: The Story of the First Women's Basketball League, 1978–1981," by Karra Porter (University of Nebraska Press, 2006)

Her television production career began as a production assistant at ABC Sports and continued at the Sports Channel

SportsChannel America

SportsChannel America was a cable television network operated by Cablevision. It was the country's first regional sports network, and thus an important ancestor to many of the United States' regional sports outlets, especially Fox Sports Net and Comcast SportsNet. SportsChannel New York was the...

. Orender also owned her own production company, Primo Donna Productions.

She spent 17 years with the PGA Tour

PGA Tour

The PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...

 and became the Senior Vice President of Strategic Development in the Office of the Commissioner in 2001. Orender was the original producer of "Inside the PGA Tour". She helped negotiate television contracts that quadrupled the Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods

Eldrick Tont "Tiger" Woods is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Formerly the World No...

 phenomenon to $800 million.

In February 2005, Orender was named the new WNBA president, succeeding Val Ackerman

Val Ackerman

Valerie B. "Val" Ackerman was born on November 7, 1959 in Lakewood Township, New Jersey but grew up in Pennington, New Jersey, United States. She is an attorney, sports executive, and former basketball player...

.

In December 2005, Fox Sports Network

Fox Broadcasting Company

Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...

 named Orender as the seventh most powerful women in sports behind notable names like Danica Patrick

Danica Patrick

Danica Sue Patrick is an American auto racing driver, model and advertising spokeswoman. She is the most successful woman in the history of American open-wheel racing, being the only woman to win in the IndyCar Series as well as holding the highest finish by a woman at the Indianapolis 500 of 3rd...

 and Sheila Johnson

Sheila Johnson

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, 2005, Washington Sports and Entertainment Chairman, Abe Pollin, sold the Mystics to Lincoln Holdings LLC, where Johnson served as...

, owner of BET

Black Entertainment Television

Black Entertainment Television is an American, Viacom-owned cable network based in Washington, D.C.. Currently viewed in more than 90 million homes worldwide, it is the most prominent television network targeting young Black-American audiences. The network was launched on January 25, 1980, by its...

.

On December 3, 2010, it was announced that Orender would be stepping down from her post effective December 31, 2010. NBA Vice President Chris Granger was tabbed to replace her on an interim basis until Laurel Richie

Laurel J. Richie

Laurel J. Richie is the current president of the Women's National Basketball Association .-Prior to the WNBA:Before the WNBA, Richie served as Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Girl Scouts of the USA...

was the named the new President.

Future

In her short tenure, Orender is already recognized as having a strong focus in branding, partnership establishments and marketing via new media.