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      “I hope that my being here is some recognition for all the people behind the scenes for the sport of basketball that they love.”

      Starting his career in 1969 as a ball boy for the Seattle SuperSonics, Rick Welts spent decades rising through the ranks to become one of the NBA’s top executives, and eventually one of the most respected executives in the industry. From 1982 to 1999, Welts worked at the NBA league office in New York, and eventually became the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of NBA Properties. During this time, he created the massively successful NBA All-Star Weekend, in addition to the marketing program for the 1992 Olympics “Dream Team.” When America’s interest in the sport soared, Welts was credited with enhancing the league’s image and making basketball the popular sport it is today.

      One of his basketball legacies came about when he joined sports attorney Val Ackerman to create the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). The two were instrumental in launching the women’s professional basketball league and securing partnerships with some of the biggest sports advertisers in the world, including Nike, Coca-Cola, and McDonald’s. Together, for their efforts, he and Ackerman were named BRANDWEEK’s ’97 Grand Marketers of the year. Later, Welts became the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Phoenix Suns, and they won three Division Titles (2005, 2006, and 2007) during his tenure with the team.

      But one of his most meaningful moments was in 2011, when he publicly came out in a front-page story in the New York Times. By doing so, Welts became the first openly gay executive of a major sports team, and an inspiration to many. He received awards from GLAAD, GLSEN, and even served as the celebrity Grand Marshal in the 2015 San Francisco Pride Parade. He also became an Advisory Board Member for the You Can Play Project, an organization dedicated to ensuring the safety and inclusion of all people in sports, including LGBTQ athletes, coaches, and fans. Shortly after coming out, and weeks after leaving the Suns, Welts was recruited by the Golden State Warriors. During his time as President and Chief Operating Officer, the Warriors have excelled, winning three NBA Championships (2015, 2017, and 2018). Welts has had a remarkable career spanning over forty years, and in 2018, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. In his acceptance speech, he acknowledged his lifelong love of sports and its power to bring people together. He also thanked his partner, Todd Gage, and said that, even though he has accomplished many things throughout his career, coming out was the most important thing he had ever done.

      Suze Orman

      Personal Financial Expert

      “People first. Then money. Then things.”

      For fourteen years, every week, Suze Orman reached three million people with The Suze Orman Show, an Emmy Award-winning program about money and personal financial independence. She became America’s go-to person for financial advice and, in addition to hosting her own show, made regular appearances on various others including The View, Anderson Cooper 360, Good Morning America, and Larry King Live. As the host of one of CNBC’s most successful television shows, Orman would take calls from viewers and give them advice on how to fix their financial problems, discussing everything from paying off student loan debt to saving for a mortgage. She educated millions of people on stocks and bonds, and explained how long it would take to pay off their credit cards if they only made the minimum payment. Orman is known for tough love, telling it like it is, and never sugarcoating her message to viewers.

      In addition to her television show, Orman is the author of nine consecutive New York Times bestsellers. Her books educate readers on how to be smart with money in any situation. She was a longtime contributing editor to O, The Oprah Magazine and a regular columnist for AARP magazine. She was included in Forbe’s list of the World’s 100 Most Power Women and was twice named to Time magazine’s list of the World’s 100 Most Influential People. While on top of the world, Orman came out in a 2007 interview with the New York Times. She said she was in a seven-year relationship with her life partner, K.T. The two were married in 2010 and have since retired to a mansion in the Bahamas. Her advice to you, no matter what your background or challenges are, is: “If you hold on to your goals and dreams, you will get there.”

      Tim Cook

      CEO, Apple

      “The sidelines are not where you want to live your life. The world needs you in the arena.”

      Many people know that Steve Jobs was the co-founder of Apple and the product visionary of the company, but did you know it was a gay man who turned their leading product, the iPhone, into one of the most successful tech products in history? Tim Cook became the CEO of Apple in 2011, and, three years later, became the first openly gay man to run a Fortune 500 company, after coming out of the closet in a Bloomberg editorial. As if that wasn’t enough, Apple became the first one-trillion-dollar publicly traded US company under his leadership.

      Most of Apple’s profits have been driven by the iPhone, which tens of millions of Americans use in their everyday lives to make calls, send texts, take pictures, check email, listen to music, post on social media, play games, and more. Cook used the product to take high-tech security features normally only used by businesses and made them available to homes around the world. Ordinary people suddenly had the capability of unlocking their devices using fingerprint technology or by scanning their faces, something that was previously only seen in sci-fi movies. He also revolutionized the way consumers make purchases when Apple rolled out a digital wallet, giving people the ability to replace their credit cards with their phones when making in-person purchases.

      In addition to being a leader in the business and technology fields, Cook is also a leader when it comes to social issues, and has a long history of supporting LGBTQ equality. In 2013, he wrote an

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