Tanya Snyder has joined her husband, Dan Snyder, as co-CEO of the Washington Football Team.
The franchise made the announcement Tuesday, making her one of a few female CEOs in the history of the league. She is also a co-owner of the franchise with Dan Snyder. The Snyder family purchased the franchise in 1999.
“Tanya is one of the most important figures in this organization, and that has only become more true over the last 18 months as her involvement has deepened,” Dan Snyder said in a statement announcing the news. “Publicly, many know Tanya for her incredible and impactful work in breast cancer awareness and her leadership of our charitable foundation. But behind the scenes, she has had a profound impact on the direction of the Washington Football Team. She was instrumental in our decision to evolve the brand and modernize our fan experience — including the entertainment team.”
She joins Amy Trask (Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders) and Kim Pegula (Buffalo Bills) among the female chief executives in NFL history.
Amy Adams Strunk assumed the role of controlling owner of the Tennessee Titans in March 2015 and serves as the co-chairman of the franchise’s board of directors.
Tanya Snyder has been the leader of the Washington Football Charitable Foundation since 2000 and founded the “Women of Washington” fan club in 2011. A breast cancer survivor, Tanya Snyder also helped introduce the NFL’s “Think Pink” campaign in 1999.
“This team is our family’s legacy,” she said in the statement. “We are at a pivotal point in the history of this team as we work to become the gold standard of NFL franchises. The co-CEO titles reflect our approach to that effort. It is a natural progression, but it’s important to formally recognize the diversity of opinion and perspective that informs everything we do. In my new role, I’ll be positioned to ensure the core values that are central to our philanthropy permeate the entire organization and bring us closer to realizing our goals.”
The Snyder family gained complete control of the franchise in March when NFL owners unanimously approved their purchase of the remaining 40.5% of the Washington Football Team from the franchise’s minority owners.
Washington is in the middle of a rebrand, having decided to retire its previous name last summer. It hasn’t yet settled on a new name or logo, but there will be a permanent one in place for the 2022 season. It will continue as the Washington Football Team this season.
Washington also remains under an independent investigation by attorney Beth Wilkinson, stemming from a number of sexual harassment allegations by previous employees over a 15-year period that were detailed by The Washington Post last summer. The investigation remains ongoing.
In February, the team reached a settlement with its former cheerleaders, who appeared in lewd videos made without their knowledge during swimsuit calendar photo shoots in 2008 and 2010. The franchise also announced that it had paused its cheerleader program amid their rebranding but the move was not tied to the investigation, multiple sources told ESPN’s John Keim in February.
The organization set out to improve its culture over the past year. The moves it has made include hiring Jason Wright as the NFL’s first Black team president and Julie Donaldson as the senior vice president of media and the first woman to be part of an NFL team’s radio broadcast.
Reuters contributed to this report.