Donna Wilkinson Executive Vice President and Chief People OfficerPacers Sports & Entertainment

Born: Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Education: Duke University, B.A., economics (played field hockey); Vanderbilt University, Owen Graduate School of Management, MBA with a concentration in human resources (Beta Gamma Sigma honors and received the Dean’s Award for the Outstanding Graduate)

Family: Spouse, Jeff; children, Natalie (27) and Claire (25)

Why she’s a Game Changer:

Wilkinson created Pacers Sports & Entertainment’s people strategy by strengthening culture, supporting rapid growth and developing women leaders, all while helping deliver landmark NBA and WNBA events.

When the Indiana Pacers moved into Conseco Fieldhouse (now Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in 1999, they had everything an NBA organization could want. Except for a human resources department.

Three years later, in walked Donna Wilkinson, who had once worked in HR at the Sara Lee Corp.’s meat group. “I had to create everything from scratch,” Wilkinson said. “But it was a lot easier to recruit people to sports than it was Sara Lee’s hot dog plant, I could tell you that.”

Some 22 years later, Wilkinson has ascended to the title of executive vice president and chief people officer — the perfect position for a people person. She oversees the HR strategy for the 2,000-plus employees at Pacers Sports & Entertainment, and gave the NBA a glimpse of her best practices when Indianapolis hosted the 2026 annual HR meetings.

Best practices such as:

• Helping create the work culture for the most-watched team in the WNBA, the Indiana Fever.

• Smoothly handling 26.4% growth of full-time employees over the last six years, due in part to the company’s burgeoning Fieldhouse area expansion.

• Prioritizing inclusion and employee opportunities across departments while PS&E hosted the NBA and WNBA all-star games in 2024 and 2025, respectively, as well as the 2025 NBA Finals.

• Reimagining PS&E’s intern program into a consistent and centralized pipeline for full-time jobs.

• Talking to everyone.

“One thing to know about me is that you break it down to just humanity,” Wilkinson said. “We know that people come to work more than they’re at home and we want to make it a wonderful place for them. We want to excel at everything that touches the employee experience. That’s including our benefits, their development, making sure we do everything that needs to be done right.”