To invest in women’s sports and the social justice platform the WNBA supports, Suzanne Abair and her partners bought the Atlanta Dream
Suzanne Abair owns a basketball—as well as a professional basketball team.
Abair is one of three owners of the Atlanta Dream, a WNBA team that sports commentators have described as having “a ton of speed and swag.” As president and COO of the Northland Investment Corp., the Newton, Massachusetts-based real estate private equity firm with $7 billion of assets, she admits that her time on the court is limited to shooting a few hoops with her two sons in the driveway of their home, though basketball is naturally front and center in her life.
In January 2021, Atlanta Dream was sold to Abair, Larry Gottesdiener, chairman and founder of Northland, and Renee Montgomery, a former WNBA champion and Atlanta Dream player. But it was the events in the summer of 2020 that started the ball rolling.
“The murder of George Floyd, the murder of Breonna Taylor, the shooting of Jacob Blake, the murder of Ahmaud Arbery … really ripped open the racial divide and the wounds in this country,” Abair said. “As an organization, we felt we needed to respond to that.”
Complicating matters, prior to the sale of the team, Georgia had of course been in the political spotlight, and the team made headlines off the court as its players publicly criticized Atlanta Dream’s previous co-owner then-US Sen. Kelley Loeffler for her attacks on the Black Lives Matter movement. Team players openly campaigned for Loeffler’s Democratic opponent, Rev. Raphael Warnock, who went on to defeat her.
It was in early January when Abair’s firm heard a rumor that Atlanta Dream was going up for sale. “Larry [Gottesdiener] sent me an email and said, ‘What do you think about pursuing this?” Abair agreed, and a week after sending a letter of intent, the WNBA commissioner approved the sale.
“We had to move very quickly because the season starts, for all intents and purposes, in April,” she said. “It’s not really the time that you would be changing ownership of a team. So, it’s been an absolute sprint for us.”
Abair said investing in professional women’s sports and the social justice platform that the WNBA—and Atlanta Dream in particular—stand for “was among the [foremost] things that prompted us to pick up the phone, make that call and follow through.
“If you had asked me a year ago if I thought that we would be in this position, I would have said no,” Abair admits. “But I have to say, I think the ownership of the Dream and being part of the WNBA, personally feels like it came along at the right time. I think this league aligned so nicely with Northland’s corporate values,” she said.
“ I think a lot of times women feel like they need to make compromises because maybe what they want to do is not a traditional role. It’s not always easy, being in a male-dominated field. But the only way we’re ever going to change that is if we keep following our hearts and pursuing what we want. ”
Suzanne Abair
‘Be your authentic self’
Abair’s road to Northland and Atlanta Dream has been anything but linear. The Massachusetts native got her undergraduate degree in 1987 from Ithaca College in upstate New York. She then moved to New York City to pursue a career in communications before deciding to get a law degree.
“I actually worked nights at a second job to save money to put myself through law school,” she said.
Abair graduated with her JD from SUNY Buffalo School of Law. She then returned to New York City and moved up from a midtown Manhattan law firm to one on Wall Street.
And while she was open to taking risks, Abair admitted that “by today’s standards, I came out pretty late. Although I think if you look back to the time frame, my professional path sort of, for me, dictated some of that timing. But those two things are sort of intertwined—my professional path and when I came out,” she said.
“If you think about being in a Wall Street law firm in the mid-’90s as a young gay woman on the partner track, it was not something that you talked about,” she said. “There was sort of this unwritten kind of rule that I had—I didn’t talk about my personal life when I was in the office.”
The pressure of working in a NYC law firm, billing nearly 3,000 hours in one year, was taking its toll on Abair. “It was difficult in terms of maintaining balance, it was difficult in doing a good job, of maintaining friendships just because of the severe limitation of free time,” she said.
The moment came when Abair had to weigh her personal life against her career. “I had to make a decision, do I stay in New York on this partner track, or do I make the move to Massachusetts?”
With her family still in the Commonwealth, Abair returned to her home state. “Two things [career and coming out] sort of merged when I moved back to Massachusetts,” she said. “I decided it was time to professionally come out.
“I had a conversation with a female partner at the firm because what I really wanted to know was, as a mid-level associate, what do I need to do to make partner here? I was expecting ‘work with this partner’ or ‘try to work with this client,’ you know, something along those lines. But what she said to me was ‘Be your authentic self. Just be you.’ She didn’t know I was gay; she just knew that I was this new associate who had come up from New York. I really took that to heart.
“I had been out with my family prior to that point, and they were always incredibly accepting, which was wonderful, and my friends were wonderful, but having to hide a part of yourself professionally, it was always a little bit difficult,” Abair remembers. “I didn’t realize until I actually was out professionally that it releases a burden you kind of carry when you feel like you need to hide some personal aspect about yourself in the workplace.”
Empowering women in the workplace and working to end racism touches all corners of Abair’s life, not just her career. “I had a very dear friend, Sylvia Ferrell-Jones, who passed away a few years ago. She was the former CEO of YW Boston,” said Abair. “Sylvia was this amazing force of a woman. When she asked you to do something you just did it. One day Sylvia invited me to breakfast and asked me to join the board of YW Boston.
“I didn’t know much about the organization, at the time, but when Sylvia described the mission and the work that they were doing in Greater Boston, I felt compelled to get involved, and so I joined the board,” said Abair. “I believe so strongly in the mission—eliminating racism and empowering women—that is so needed in Boston [that] Northland has now partnered with YW Boston.”
‘You don’t need permission’
Strong women have deep roots in Abair’s family. She remembers the stories about her grandparents’ pharmacy and how they ran it together, with her grandfather, a pharmacist, tending to the medical side and her grandmother handling the soda fountain and sundry sales.
“They really viewed it as their family business and as a true partnership,” she said. “But when my grandfather died suddenly from a heart attack at 42, my grandmother had to get permission [to run the business]. I have the original framed letter that I keep in my office hanging on the wall as a reminder, because it says ‘you’re allowed to carry on the business under a widow’s rights exemption.’
“My grandmother was very clear when she relayed this to me,” said Abair. “She was telling me, ‘I needed permission, but you don’t need permission to do the things that you want to do.’
“Whenever I’ve thought about whether I should pursue something, I hear my grandmother in the back of my mind. I can be a professional woman, a professional gay woman in commercial real estate and be successful. I can pursue ownership of a professional sports team. I don’t need anyone’s permission. I think that having heard that from a young age, for me, was important because it never mattered to me if I was competing with men or women, to me it was just competing,” she said.
“Now that does not mean it was always a level playing field, but if I can help other women, if I can help other gay women, if I can help anyone, for that matter … to achieve what they want and to follow their passion, I think that that’s a big part of it. I think a lot of times women feel like they need to make compromises because maybe what they want to do is not a traditional role. It’s not always easy, being in a male-dominated field. But the only way we’re ever going to change that is if we keep following our hearts and pursuing what we want.”
In offering advice to younger women who want to pursue a career in finance, Abair was clear in her message: “I would say don’t be afraid to take chances, leave yourself open to opportunities, and follow your passion. If you do those three things when you look back on your career, I think you’re going to be fulfilled.
“For some young women, find a mentor. There’s a lot of women of my vintage, shall we say, who are willing to be mentors,” she added.
Personal achievements
When Northland was named one of the best places to work in multifamily, Abair said that was validation that they had achieved their goal to becoming an employee-focused organization. “For me, it wasn’t a personal achievement,” she said. “It was really an achievement that was shared by the organization.”
Despite her hectic schedule as president and COO of Northland, Abair said her family is her priority. She and her spouse have been together for 23 years. “If you’re going to ask me when we legally got married, I’m going to have to punt on that question because I can never remember the exact date. It was after we had adopted our second son. We needed to wait until that adoption was completed.
“Honestly, I have probably the most supportive spouse anyone could ever have. That, obviously, is helpful and important. So yes, my schedule is busy, but I never lose sight of the fact that my family has always been a priority for me.”
It is with her family and their trips to Cape Cod that bring Abair the most relaxing moments. “I am someone who, the moment I [cross] the Sagamore Bridge, I feel my whole body start to relax a little bit.”
Nature and—this won’t surprise you—watching professional sports, any kind actually,” are also relaxers. “It’s a little less relaxing to watch Atlanta Dream games now that we have an interest in the team,” she admitted.
“I coached my kids’ baseball teams when they were younger,” she said. “For me, it’s really family time in nature and then sports.”
Having a professional basketball player co-owning Atlanta Dream has been pivotal, according to Abair who describes the unique qualities Montgomery and Gottesdiener bring to the ownership group.
“Working with Renee is fantastic, she is focused on marketing and community engagement. It’s tremendous having someone who was a player, so we always have the player’s perspective when we’re making decisions for the organization,” Abair said. “Larry’s incredibly focused on design and marketing. He redesigned the court this year.”
Abair admits that her co-owners’ strengths are not in her skill set. “But when it comes to running the business and making those types of decisions, this is where I come in. So, it’s a nice complement.”
While Abair describes herself as being a huge sports fan, she knows her limitations. “I played softball, not basketball. If you knew my family, we’re all vertically challenged. I’m 5-2. There’s no one of the stature that would have been a basketball standout in my family,” she said.
When asked if she had any court time in her background, Abair explained, “I typically answer that with a no, but the honest answer is yes. There was a very humbling season, when I was in high school when the girls basketball coach was going to also be the softball coach that spring. So, he called a meeting of the softball players and suggested very strongly that it would be a good idea if we played basketball that winter to get into shape for softball season.
“I was like, you’ve got to be kidding! I’ve never dribbled the basketball in my life. But he put us on the JV team, and we would basically practice. Maybe I’d get a minute [on the courts], but was a minute too much for me!” Abair said, laughing, admitting, “I was just not that good. But I was in the best shape of my life for that softball season, so there was a method to his madness!”
Looking back, Abair said, “I’ve really been lucky. I’ve worked with great people. I’ve had great deals. I’ve worked at a great organization. So far it’s just been a great career. I’ve loved every minute of it.”
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