The Seattle Storm's ownership group, Force 10 Hoops L.L.C., is comprised of four Seattle businesswomen and civic leaders, all season ticket holders, who stepped forward to purchase the Storm in January 2008 so that the team would remain in Seattle. Their actions were driven by their shared commitment to the importance of giving back to the community and to the philosophy that women and girls should have the chance to compete at every level.
The group’s announcement of intent to purchase the Storm was made on Jan. 8, 2008, and the purchase was approved by the WNBA Board of Governors on Feb. 28, making the Storm one of six independently owned franchises in the WNBA. Force 10 derives its name from the point on the Beaufort wind scale at which bad weather officially becomes a storm.
Share your feedback with the Storm's ownership group at Force10Hoops@stormbasketball.com
Dawn Trudeau is currently serving as Chairperson of Force 10 Hoops L.L.C. Trudeau spent over 20 years in the software industry including 14 years at Microsoft, where she led divisions in Database and Development tools as well as Consumer Products. For the past 10 years she has worked with emerging non-profits to build organizational capacity and sustainability.
Trudeau currently chairs the Board of the Economic Opportunity Institute and is a member of the University of Washington Women’s Center Advisory Board. She also serves on the Board of Social Venture Partners International and the Advisory Board of the Business Partnership for Early Learning.
As an athlete at Yale University, she was named to the Ivy League Women’s Hall of Fame for Softball, MVP on the All-Ivy teams for both basketball and softball, and held a number of university records. She was drafted by the Dallas Diamonds in the 4th round of the 1981 Women’s Professional Basketball League (WBL) draft.
She is active in charitable ventures associated with Hopelink community services, the University of Washington Medical Center, and Yale University.
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Ginny Gilder has started several entrepreneurial ventures, both businesses and non-profits. Today she is principal of her own investment business and president of one of her family’s philanthropic entities, which invests in projects throughout the world that seek to level the economic playing field and promote social justice. She established Washington Works, a local non-profit dedicated to supporting welfare recipients obtain and retain livable-wage employment, and served as its first Executive Director. She has also served on various non-profit boards, locally and around the country, all focused on education or sports.
A rower, she earned four varsity letters at Yale University, and was an All-Ivy Champion twice. Her freshman year she helped usher in the post-Title IX era at Yale by participating in the now-famous women’s crew strip-in protesting the lack of equal facilities. In addition, she represented the United States on four national teams, including two Olympic teams. She was named to the U.S. team which boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games and won a silver medal at the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1984. She has helped launch two community rowing programs, one in Boston, MA and another in Derby, CT. She received an NCAA Silver Anniversary Award for community service in 2004.
Anne Levinson served as a public official for nearly two decades, as a judge, Chair of Washington State’s Utilities & Transportation Commission, Deputy Mayor and Legal Counsel to the Mayor of Seattle. She directed several high profile negotiations and reforms for the City, including development of self-managed transitional housing for the homeless, revitalizing the downtown, reforming the City’s financial management, acquiring Key Tower, and leading Seattle to be the second city in the country to offer domestic partner benefits.
While chairing the Utility Commission, she fought against energy deregulation and as a judge created one of the nation’s first mental health courts. She has founded or served on the board of directors for dozens of Seattle charitable organizations, and currently serves on the board of directors for the Center for Children & Youth Justice and a national advisory panel for the MacArthur Foundation. In 2006, she chaired the statewide campaign to defeat the repeal of the State’s anti-discrimination law, passed after 29 years. Levinson played field hockey in college and as an athlete filed a Title IX complaint, resulting in more equitable treatment for female athletes. She was instrumental in Seattle acquiring its first professional women’s basketball team, the Seattle Reign.
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