Cynt Marshall made history in March 2018 when the Dallas Mavericks hired her to lead the front office, the first Black female CEO in NBA history. She retired last December but remains as a consultant until the end of 2025. She also turned 65 in December, and that milestone birthday set the stage for what she calls Act 3. “I had said for a while that between the ages of 65 and 75, I would run hard for kids. That I wanted my life to be where, when I get up in the morning, I can say that some kid’s life is significantly better because of something I did the day before. And so, I said I’d run hard. Whether it be education, adoption, just things like that, right? So, I turned 65, December 15th, end of last year. And just said, this is the time. This is the time,” Marshall told NBC5 as she prepared to moderate a conversation at a fundraiser for Jonathan’s Place, a nonprofit that has spent three decades working to provide a safe place for children in North Texas who have experienced abuse and neglect. Marshall likes to use acronyms to help frame a purpose. When she took over the Mavericks’ front office to transform a workplace that was not a great place for women and people of color, Marshall created a set of values she called CRAFTS: Character, Respect, Authenticity, Fairness, Teamwork, and Respect. Her leadership philosophy is known as the three Ls: listen to the people, learn from the people, and love the people. And now as she enters this new phase of life, it’s the three Bs: better, boards, books. Marshall wants life to be better for kids. Adoption is near and dear to her. That’s how she and her husband, Kenny, found their four children. “I got a lot of stuff going on, but my main focus, my main passion in life is to make sure that we get these kids who are born into these circumstances through no fault of their own, that we get them in a place where they have stability,” she said. “Sometimes it’s foster care, a good placement, and often it’s adoption, which is what we were able to do. But the goal is to make sure that they are loved, supported, have a sense of belonging, a forever family, and a bright future. And so, I just want to help the people who are doing that.” Marshalling Resources, the company she founded in 2017, allows her to pay it forward. The company offers services to support team building and human resource needs. Its parallel purpose is supporting four areas of philanthropy: Causes that support permanence and stability for our children, especially those in foster care Tutoring and other academic support services for our youth, especially those with special needs. Financial support for HBCU juniors and seniors at risk of not graduating due to a lack of resources. Causes that lift and connect women with resources to ensure their PMS: physical, mental, and spiritual health. “We focus on just trying to make things better. Especially for kids,” she said, “We try to do things to make sure that these kids can get a good education and just a great shot at life.” Marshall also wants to impact boardrooms. She sits on five boards, although she’s about to step off one of them. “I pick and choose what boards I want to be on. Because I want to be in a place where my voice is heard. And my voice, to me, represents a lot of voices that are often not heard. And so, that’s what I like to bring to a board. To make sure they are listening to people. To make sure they are connecting with their employees. Their community. Their corporate. I want to make sure their corporate social responsibility is forefront in the business plan. I just like the space,” Marshall said. And now that she has some time back, she’ll write two more books to follow her 2022 memoir You’ve Been Chosen. One will focus on leadership; the other on motherhood. In the leadership book, Marshall will share the three things she believes over time and with practice, she does exceptionally well. “In order to be a truly effective leader, I have to do three things, and I call it my three L’s of leadership. Listen to the people. Learn from the people, and love the people,” she said. “Listen at a level where you can hear what they are not even saying. And stop and be quiet,” she explained. “Hear what they’re telling you and then listen closely so you can hear what they are not telling you. As a leader, there’s value in that.” “Stop and learn the job because you have the smartest people on the planet working on your team, working on the front lines. Learn that job so that you can serve them, so that you can have empathy, so you can give them what they need because that’s all true leadership is about, is serving people,” she said. “Usually when I say the love part,” she continued, “it catches people off guard, because they don’t think about that in a work setting. But your work is full of people who have lives, who are trying to make it all work for them. And I play a big part in that, my policies, my practices, just my whole disposition at work. I can either send somebody home mad and impact their family, or I can send them home happy, and then I can also impact their financial situation. So I think about all that stuff. And so listen to the people, learn from the people that love the people. Don’t get away from the basics.” Those three Ls mirror what she says has been her prayer since her first job at 21, when she was hired as a local supervisor at AT&T in California. “Lord, let me see what I really need to see, and Lord, let me serve and love these people because they are your people,” she said. From that start at 21, Marshall had a 36-year career at AT&T, where she led initiatives to improve workplace diversity and culture. The company moved her from North Carolina to Dallas, where she retired in 2017. She had just started her new company when she joined the Dallas Mavericks in 2018. And now, six years after she made NBA history, Marshall is ready to try something new. At the age of 65, she feels experienced, energized, and wise. “I think I am ready to just take it to another level,” she told NBC5. “I have a lot of energy, and I just want to be part of somebody’s supporting cast. So, I don’t have a desire to kind of be a celebrity. People always say I’m the most like non-celebrity celebrity they know, right? I’m not a celebrity. I just want to join forces with people who are doing good things to make things better.” At the start of 2025, Marshall picked “chosen” as her word for the year, and wherever that leads her, she’s ready for it. “I’m just open to what the Lord says is the next phase of my life. And so I’m trying to kind of just get through this year without making any big commitments. But I have Act 3 out there in a big way,” she said. “So, more is coming. Something big is coming. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know what it is, but I’m excited about it. I’m just excited about this phase in my life.” The next phase in a “cyntsational” life. This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser. ...read more read less