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The Dallas Mavericks introduced a new CEO on Monday brought in following the exposure of front office sexual misconduct and domestic assault allegations.
The new interim CEO is Cynthia Marshall, who most recently worked as senior vice president of human resources and chief diversity officer for AT&T.
Owner Mark Cuban and his franchise are dealing with the fallout from a Sports Illustrated report that former CEO Terdema Ussery repeatedly sexually harassed women in the organization and Mavs.com writer Earl K. Sneed assaulted two different girlfriends. Ussery left the Mavs two and a half years ago and was never replaced. He's denied the allegations in the story.
Marshall said she will immediately focus on three key areas: the investigation into what happened, transforming the culture of the Mavericks front office and finding ways to improve how the office operates.
“Our goal is for the Dallas Mavericks organization to be a great place to work for everyone. Not for a few people, but for everyone. A place of character and integrity where individuals are held accountable for their actions,” Marshall said.
Marshall said she grew up in housing projects and experienced domestic violence as a child. She said she’s taking the Mavericks job on in part for “the sisterhood.”
Marshall says she will meet with every Mavs employee and hopes many former employees. She met the team on Monday and left Head Coach Rick Carlisle impressed.
“She’s gonna be great,” he said. “She’s dynamic. She’s charismatic, and she’s extremely smart. She’s intolerant of any bull****. That’s pretty clear.”
The normally chatty Cuban spoke little during the press conference and deferred questions on the state of the investigation and his feelings on the past week.
“Today is not the day for me to talk about everything,” Cuban said. “This is about us moving forward. The investigators have talked to me, they'll talk to everybody and [we will] get a report from them on everything.”
The Mavs have hired two New York lawyers to investigate the sexual harassment claims. Cuban says he'll have more to say after that investigation is complete.