Atlanta Hawks and Girl Scouts execs on what it takes to thrive as a leader

Melissa Proctor never decided to be a leader.

For some that may come as a surprise, considering who Proctor is: chief marketing officer of the Atlanta Hawks and a former vice president of Turner Broadcasting.

But Proctor said her path to leadership was something she evolved into over time.

“I never saw myself as a leader,” Proctor told a group of about 100 women gathered at the annual Atlanta Hawks She LEADS Women’s Empowerment Summit last month.

“I was always just moving with passion, things that I was interested in, things I wanted to learn more about. And at some point you go from being a doer to a leader,” she said.

Proctor was in conversation with Jai Ferrell, the former chief revenue officer at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and current CEO of the Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta, for the opening summit.

She LEADS is an initiative the Hawks launched three years ago to help 50 early-career women get matched with mentors and attend workshops over six months to help them advance their careers.

Proctor and Ferrell discussed their careers and how to thrive as leaders, aiming to shed light on what it takes to journey to the top.

Attendees talk at the Atlanta Hawks She LEADS Women's Empowerment Summit on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (Steven Burroughs/Courtesy of the Atlanta Hawks)

Don’t chase titles

When Proctor first joined the Hawks in 2014, she was working in brand strategy as a team of one, with no direct reports. But the team’s CEO, Steve Koonin, kept telling Proctor he wanted her to be in the C-suite.

“I was like, ‘Nah, man, I said I’m good,’” she recalled. “Then one day, he was just like, ‘Do you know why I want you to do this?’ He’s like, ‘Because you don’t want to. And a lot of people want positions of power because of what they think it’ll be.’”

But Proctor’s main focus was just making “dope” work.

“It didn’t matter what I was doing. I wanted it to be great. I wanted to make an impact. I wanted to be able to help people as much as possible. And because of that, he was like, ‘That’s why I want you to take this job,’” she said.

Ferrell said her journey to leading the region’s Girl Scouts started when she was a little girl from the confidence her mother and grandmother instilled in her.

“I am so grateful for that, because I never walked into a room that I didn’t think I belonged in,” she said. “That confidence is what got me here.”

A leader doesn’t walk in a room and proclaim their title or how important they are, Ferrell said. It comes through in their presence, in the way they carry themselves.

“You don’t always have to have a title to be a leader,” Ferrell said. “I wasn’t the CEO at the airport at the time, but I was a decision maker. … People, when they start thinking about what leadership looks like, they stop chasing the titles.”

When negotiating, think beyond salary

When entering a new role, negotiating base compensation is a key part of that. But that’s just one part of a total compensation package.

“Everything isn’t in the form of currency,” Ferrell said.

Things like the ability to work from home, having an assigned parking spot and skills training are all things that can be negotiated, she explained.

In her last role at the airport, there wasn’t room to negotiate the salary higher. So instead Ferrell asked that a Harvard Business School program be put into her leadership budget.

“So if you have an opportunity to get a (Project Management Professional) certification, or you get some type of special education certification, or any of that … it’s your own intellectual property, so take advantage of the programming,” she said.

Do it scared, but do it anyway

Sometimes getting the job you want means doing the work before you get the title, Proctor explained.

“If you know it is time for a change, it’s really doing the job you want before you have it,” she said.

“My entire career was creating the experience out of thin air, volunteering for somebody and putting it on my resume like it was a job,” she said. “I can show you the (key performance indicators). I can share exactly how I helped. But doing the job you want before you have it, I think, is business critical.”

Ultimately, making a job or career change can be scary, especially while rising in the ranks, but Ferrell said to just do it.

“Now, don’t do it stupid. Don’t quit your job without knowing that you have a plan,” she said.