About Therese O’Higgins

Spending a day with global trailblazers such as Malala Yousafzai, Melinda French Gates, and billionaire businesswoman Michelle Kang is all in a day’s work for Galway woman Therese O’Higgins.

She is both managing director of the New York-based sports business Billie Jean King Enterprises and executive director of the not-for-profit Billie Jean King Foundation.

In these roles, Therese directs events such as the Power of Women’s Sport Summit (which featured the above speakers in 2025) and the Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge, which is the women’s World Cup of Tennis.

“It’s amazing – 136 nations participate,” says Therese. “It feeds women’s tennis across the world, because if your country participates, your [tennis] federation gets paid and you can continue to support access to tennis.”

Learning about business from the get-go

Having studied for a Bachelor of Commerce at the now-University of Galway, Therese was drawn to study at UCD Smurfit School by its reputation, and she completed a Master of Business Studies (MBS) in Management and Organisational Studies.

She had grown up immersed in entrepreneurship and hospitality, thanks to her parents who own and run the Oranmore Lodge Hotel, and this inspired her Masters’ thesis on emotional labour in the hospitality industry.

“When you work in hotels, you are meeting people on the best or worst day of their life – weddings, birthdays and so on are highly charged events,” she says. “I was always really interested in the anthropological aspects of why people work in these businesses.”

Multiple strands of learning

Looking back, Therese remembers really enjoying living on the UCD Smurfit campus, but also how much she benefitted from the talks given by numerous professionals to the students, as it highlighted how their studies connected to the world of work.

She also relished the module on organisational theory and psychology, taught by now-Associate Professor Maeve Houlihan. “I found it fascinating, especially the human elements of the stories and the deep dive into Harvard case studies.”

While at UCD Smurfit, she was also awarded a scholarship to study abroad for a semester and went to l'Université de Reims in France, where she got to tour local champagne houses and factories, learning how they competed internationally.

Making the most of networks

Having joined Accenture as a graduate, Therese found herself on paid leave of absence from the company in 2009, following the economic crash. She secured a recent graduate visa for the US, got to work as a bartender and waitress, and started networking in the Irish community.

That led to working for Declan Kelly, the then-US Economic Envoy to Northern Ireland. When he set up PR firm Teneo a year later, she joined it and was a senior vice-president when she left in 2018.

“Teneo had less than 10 people when I started and over 1,000 people when I left,” says Therese. “It was so interesting and fast-paced. Its core business is corporate communications, but I carved out a niche working in corporate social responsibility, diversity, equality and inclusion. That was where I met Billie Jean King and her wife Ilana Kloss.”

Moving to the world of sport

After six months spent travelling following her time at Teneo, Therese returned to New York and went to work directly for Billie Jean and Ilana.

Billie Jean King Enterprises now handles brand deals and partnerships for Billie Jean and other athletes, runs competitive events in tennis and other sports, such as the first ever professional women’s hockey league. It also invests in women’s sports and related companies.

Meanwhile, the Billie Jean King Foundation works for causes such as reproductive freedom, LGBTQ rights, across the pillars of sports, education and activism.

“Billie Jean is an icon that walks among us,” says Therese. “She gets up every day thinking about how she's going to change the world today for somebody and she usually does – there is more awareness, attention, and investment going into women's sports than ever before in history.”

Panel

What is your typical day like?

We travel often, so there is no typical day as such. Early in the summer, we’re in London for Wimbledon, then at the end of August and into early September, I’m at the US Open every day. I absolutely love the travel and flexibility as somebody who doesn’t enjoy very structured and corporate environments.

What gets you up in the morning?

I want to see billion-dollar team valuations in women’s sports. And I know it’s going to happen because we’re working every day towards it, because women who play sports become leaders.

What keeps you awake at night?

Keeping young girls in positive, reinforcing environments is so important to me. Unfortunately, a lot of people want to detract from that and you see the hard won gains for equality slip back in some arenas. So I think about all the progress that has yet to happen. And then I’ll get up the next day and say, “What can we do about it?”, and try to move the needle.

What advice would you give those studying business and starting out?

I’d talk about persistence and the power of showing up, about continuing to follow up with people and finding ways to build relationships, whether it's just a conversation or an introduction. The kindness and generosity of other people, especially the Irish community, has been a huge career enhancer for me in New York.

September 2025