Nzinga Shaw
Nzinga Shaw
On September 27, 2021, Nzinga “Zing” Shaw became the first President of TurnkeyZRG, the sports and entertainment powerhouse talent recruitment firm acquired by ZRG last year. Additionally, Zing will be the Managing Director, Chief Inclusion & Diversity Officer (internal) of ZRG’s parent company, and Global Practice Head of ZRG’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion client-facing practice (external). She is the first person in history to be the National Basketball Association and the entire sports industry’s Chief Diversity Officer.
Zing will lead the sports and entertainment industry’s top search firm at TurnkeyZRG. In the last year, Turnkey placed the Commissioners of the ACC and the PAC-12, along with more than 120 other placements for like Endeavor/WME, ASM Global, Kansas City Chiefs, Tepper Sports & Entertainment, Chicago Bulls, Portland Trailblazers, Orlando Magic, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Seattle Kraken. Len Perna, Chairman, Founder & CEO of TurnkeyZRG said “Everybody knows Zing is a DEI expert. But she’s so much more. Zing is a force as a connector, sales & marketing executive, and business leader. I can learn a lot from Zing.” Former professional NBA player, Grant Hill (Vice-Chair of the NBA Atlanta Hawks. Managing Director of the U.S. Men’s National Team and on the Board of Governors of the NCAA) said “TurnkeyZRG places industry leaders. They’re at the forefront of advancing equality and diversity in sports. Zing will turbocharge those efforts, and that’s good for all of us”.
Zing was formerly the global chief inclusion & diversity officer for Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (NYSE: MMC), the world’s leading professional services firm in the areas of risk, strategy and people. She provided strategic guidance across the enterprise to promote inclusive practices in every facet of the collective business. She developed a strategy to embed equity in all programmatic activities, governance and daily administration of the organization.
Prior to joining Marsh & McLennan, Zing has been at the forefront of leading organizational change through diversity. She was the first person to hold the chief diversity & inclusion officer positions at Starbucks Coffee Company and the National Basketball Association. She also served as senior vice president of diversity & inclusion at Edelman, the world’s largest and most profitable public relations/integrated marketing agency. Throughout her career, Zing has worked as a human capital strategist across a multitude of industries including publishing, sports entertainment, public relations, retail and professional services.
Zing is a recipient of several industry awards including Sports Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 and Game Changers awards, Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 40 Under 40 and Women Who Mean Business awards, The Network Journal 40 Under Forty, and Top 25 Most Influential Black Women in Business awards, PR Week 40 Under 40 award, and many more. She was selected by 39th United States President - Jimmy Carter to serve a 3-year term on the Board of Councilors of The Carter Center. Zing is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Fisk University and serves on the Advisory Board of Arctos Sports Partners and ColorComm. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and The Links, Incorporated. Zing is an alumna of Spelman College, the University of Pennsylvania, and was a study abroad scholar at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Zing and her husband Keith live in Atlanta, GA, and have three children, Lacy, Hudson, and Keith III “Trey.”