Spotlighting
A RACE FOR
DIVERSITY Tshneka T. Tate BY PATRICK FOLLIARD
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While still a law student, Tshneka Tate wrote down a list of career goals—helping break gender and racial barriers in the stock car racing world was not one of them. But as the senior assistant general counsel for the media arm of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), Tate has, in many instances, become a face of diversity in a sport that is typically associated with white men.
“P DIVERSITY & THE BAR® NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2013
from all walks of life, and I’m proud to have been a part of that growth.” An average of nearly 6 million viewers tune in to
eople’s perceptions are always interesting,” says Tate, who was the first African American woman in the legal department when she joined NASCAR in 2000. “Early in my career, I
remember showing up at a race and some looked surprised to see me. Today, it’s mostly people outside of NASCAR who are initially a little stunned to learn that I’m the lead media lawyer here. Te reality is that our sport is made up of people
each NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event from February to November. No other sport comes close to deliver- ing such a large, sustained audience every week for ten months of the year. Founded in 1948 by Bill France Sr., NASCAR is a family-owned business that serves as a sanctioning body; it consists of three national series, four regional touring series, one local grassroots series, and three international circuits. NASCAR sanctions more than 1,200 races at 100 tracks in more than 30 U.S. states, Canada, Mexico, and Europe. NASCAR races are broadcast in more than 150 countries and in 20 languages. Since 2003, France’s grandson, Brian France, has led as NASCAR chairman and CEO. NASCAR is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Fla., with
offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Tate’s hometown of Charlotte, N.C., where she is based. Tate oversees all media- related matters for NASCAR and its related companies— including their digital business, entertainment division, productions operations—and is primarily responsible for contracts and rights issues related to their broadcasts. Tate’s tenure at NASCAR coincided with years of explo-
sive expansion and increased visibility for the family-owned company. When she was hired in 2000 as a licensing attor- ney, NASCAR had recently consolidated and centralized its broadcast rights, resulting in NASCAR signing landmark
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