WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert will retire at the end of this season, ending a tenure of nearly eight years that saw huge league growth but also came with controversies.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced the news on Friday, while the WNBA is in a mid-season break for the Women’s World Cup.

“Cathy has presided over the WNBA through the most significant period of growth in the league’s 30-year history,” Silver said. “We are grateful for Cathy’s leadership and unwavering commitment to the advancement of women’s basketball.”

Engelbert, 61, is the second longest-tenured commissioner of the WNBA and oversaw the expansion of the league to three new markets, with three more expansion teams planned through 2030.

Engelbert also helped negotiate the league’s new collective bargaining agreement last spring, which allowed players to make million-dollar salaries for the first time.

Engelbert told the Associated Press that she had been considering retirement for a while and that she has already started working on a succession plan, but she declined to name her successor.

“It’s a good time to hand it off to the next leader to take the ‘W’ into a better phase,” she said. “I’m proud of the team we built and everything we accomplished. A leader knows when it’s time to drop the mic and move on after building a powerhouse team in the league office.”

When Engelbert took over in 2019, the average value of a WNBA franchise was $10 million; in 2026, it is about $460 million.