CHARLOTTE — At one of her first NFL league meetings, Kristi Coleman was sitting next to Panthers owner David Tepper as the business session was about to begin.
"Stand up," he told her. "Look around this room."
The message was clear. The decision-makers and power brokers of the league were gathered in one place, and the population was nearly as completely male as every locker room in the league.
That day, she was still the team's chief financial officer, a step away from her current role as team president. Sunday, she can look across the field to the other sideline and see a colleague — and progress, all at the same time.
When the Panthers and Raiders face off at Allegiant Stadium, it will be the first game in NFL history between teams with female presidents.
Coleman and the Raiders' Sandra Douglass Morgan have become close since rising to those jobs — Coleman in February 2022 and Morgan in July of that year — and the moment is not lost on them.
"I think it's important for women, and really everyone, to be able to see that they can be in these roles," Coleman said.
"I think it's great that we're both two female presidents in the NFL supporting each other and hopefully giving greater visibility to women and girls to know that there are definitely opportunities for leadership and management in sports," Morgan said when she joined Coleman here for International Women's Day in 2023.
While the two of them have risen to these positions of prominence, the fact they have a built-in network creates a level of comfort for both of them.
"You do feel a little bit more comfortable when you have someone else you can call," Coleman said. "While Charlotte and Vegas are obviously two very different markets, the role and what you're having to do isn't different. A lot of the things we do and nuances that we experience are the same."
Seeing the two of them together will be a proud moment for them but for so many others.
When Coleman became president, she was surrounded by female executives in Charlotte. It's not a large group, but they look after their own, sharing the wisdom they've earned over the years and the maps for the future.
Nancy McNelis, a local business development leader, looked Coleman square in the eye and made it clear on one of their first meetings that she represented something greater than just her own role or the team.
"You have to succeed," she told Coleman. "We want to see you succeed. It's important to us as women. So we will do everything we can to make sure that we help you to succeed."
Coleman might have grown up thinking about the Panthers, but she did not think she'd be running them.
Growing up in Lake Hartwell, S.C., the team was part of the air she breathed. The Panthers played their first season nearby at Clemson — where she'd go on to study accounting — so it was always part of her context.
But after graduating from Clemson — and there are still plenty of flashes of orange in her office, among the black and blue — Coleman was on a different road.
She was on track to become a partner at Deloitte, putting her on a clear path to a comfortable corporate executive gig.
Sports as a career wasn't even on her radar. That is until the Panthers became one of her early clients.
While doing an audit for the Panthers, it was not unusual for head coach John Fox to stick his head into the audit room and ask if she could help with his taxes ("No, we don't do that," she politely replied) or for quarterback Cam Newton to walk down the hall and acknowledge her with a quiet nod and a" 'Sup."
Along with being in the stadium during those years, the hook was set.
But when the opportunity came to join the Panthers in 2014, she was torn.
The track she was on was both steady and ascending. Being a controller for an NFL team put her in the arena, but it was a job she might have had for decades. The NFL is a big business made up of small companies, so the opportunities for advancement are rare. Take the job, and she might be in it until she retired.
However, Coleman did advance, becoming director of finance in 2016 and chief financial officer in 2019.
So as she considered the option to become CFO, she turned to another of her most trusted advisors.
"Do you want to teach someone to be your boss, or do you want to be the boss," her mother, Kim, told her.
She's now the boss, and she's still doing the work.
When asked for advice — she gets that a lot — her message is straightforward.
"Do your job first, and do it well," she says.
"I think a lot of people are looking at what's next, and I get that," Coleman continued. "While it's important to have ambitions and aspirations for the next level, before that you have to focus on doing your current job exceptionally well. That's how you get recognized for the next step.
"And I think that's what's been proven. How I've succeeded in my career is I've focused on the job at hand and doing it really well."
And that simple, direct approach is how she's continued to do business, from the time she was making sure the books balanced, to the time she's making the deals.
From extending the team's stadium naming rights agreement with Bank of America to spearheading the $800 million deal with the city for the venue's first major renovation, Coleman has put two of the cornerstone pieces of business together in the last year.
But she's done it with an understated touch, a quiet ease in this place. Coleman admits she's "much more comfortable in a Keep Pounding sweatshirt and a pair of jeans," but she's also moving through the halls of power and money in this city.
Despite her position, she's still grounded in a way that many people aren't, much less top executives.
Coleman said that upon becoming president, one of her first priorities was to step out from behind the spreadsheets and screens — her comfort zone — and learn the people part of the business.
"The numbers, that's what I loved," she said. "But what's really important to the organization and people in the organization is for them to be seen and heard. Everybody wants to feel valued; they want to feel like they're part of a team.
"So one of the first things I did in this role was I went and introduced myself to everyone on the team. I obviously knew most people, but I thought it was important for them to know that I saw them. Even just saying hello. So I tried very hard in the first year to make sure I was walking the building and I was seen by, and people knew that I was seeing them. That was, to me, the most important thing – to make people feel valued."
But for all the common touches, the notes of grace that help her do business in what can still be a small town, Coleman is also very much in charge. Being nice is nice, but you also have to negotiate with cities and Fortune 500 companies and do it on behalf of one of the brightest minds in finance.
She's done that business. But she's done it her way, unassuming at times, with that same gleam in her eye for a big game.
Once, when a new player arrived, the coach, general manager, and the Teppers were there to greet him. It was the kind of moment everyone wanted a picture of, so Coleman did the thing that came so naturally to her.
She did the job in front of her, and she did it well, grabbing a phone and preserving the moment.
That's when she got a nudge from Caroline Wright, the team's chief venues officer.
"You have to be in the picture," Wright told her, taking the phone and pushing her toward the football people. "Females everywhere want to see that they can be in the picture."
The message was clear. She belonged in that moment since she had helped create the setting for it. Years after standing up in a league meeting and looking around and not seeing many people who looked like her, she continues to be in those rooms where it happens.
Sunday, she'll be there again.
And this time, she'll have company.
