How LunYan Hoysgaard Brought Her Service-Based Career Goals to Sports

“I just didn’t feel like asset management was the best fit for my value system,” Hoysgaard admitted. “I realized after six-ish years in asset management, it was not the right place for me to be doing the ‘helping others’ work.”

Hoysgaard’s early career in nonprofits and public service naturally sprouted from her family roots. Her upbringing as the daughter of Chinese immigrants who relied on community networks to build their lives in America instilled in her the importance of giving back. Her education at schools with strong civic service curricula reinforced it.

After spending time working as a consultant, conducting interviews, program evaluation, and research, she made an intentional transition into HR, moving from direct service work into creating work environments that support employees. But there was still that service component she craved, and the finance world didn’t feel like the right setting.

Then COVID-19 hit during her third trimester with her second child, while she was still working in HR for an asset management platform, and everything shifted.

“It’s really weird being pretty pregnant, having a toddler at home, and then being told, like, stay home, otherwise you’re gonna die,” she recalled. 

Living in Massachusetts while her mother remained in Manhattan, Hoysgaard found herself fearful in ways she’d never experienced growing up in New York.

“I was truly fearful of her safety,” she said. “I think my identity really took shape in terms of identity as a mother, identity as an Asian American female, the daughter of an elderly woman. I was like, I can’t go to work at this company on a daily basis, knowing that these other problems exist in the world, and I’m not doing anything to improve that.”

So she took a pause. She spent time with her children, visited her mother, and enjoyed valuable time with her family. And when she started looking for work again, recruiters kept sending her the same jobs she’d left.

“I knew I didn’t want that, and I didn’t know what else was out there,” Hoysgaard explained.

Then Athletes Unlimited popped up on LinkedIn. She had never pictured herself working in sports, but she clicked anyway.

While reading about founders Jon Patricof and Jonathan Soros, the mission behind AU caught her attention.

“Nothing about this makes sense,” she thought. “Me applying to a sports job, that someone would have this kind of format for a sports league, but we’re just going to apply anyway.”

What she read on the website resonated with her. Everything was athlete-centric, fan-engaging, values-based.

“This sounded like a really value-based effort,” she said. “There has to be some belief in their core being that this is just the right thing to do. If they didn’t believe it was the right thing to do to give female athletes a platform, it wouldn’t matter how profitable the business structure could be. I had to believe that they believed in equality for women.”

Her first call was with Chief Operating Officer Ana Drucker, and within 15 minutes, Hoysgaard knew something was different.

“I was like, okay, I think she’s the type of person I want to work for,” she said. “What’s going to make or break a future opportunity is how much I connect to the manager and how kind they are. I really needed to know that my manager would be kind and a good person.”

Then she met more of the team, and the pattern continued.

“They’re all so nice. Like, is this real?” she remembered thinking. “And then I interviewed with Jon, and he was really smiley. And I was like, ‘A CEO who smiles?’ It was just so different and refreshing.”

Now, as Vice President of People & Culture at Athletes Unlimited, after a promotion from Senior Director in July, Hoysgaard has found what she was looking for, though not in the way she expected.

“I don’t necessarily view my role as helping other people,” she explained. “Where I think I am fulfilled professionally is being part of an organization that has a goal that is bigger than any one employee. I’m not going to achieve anything on my own, but if I work really hard alongside other people who are working really hard, then together, we would be able to create this amazing product, this amazing league.”

Her approach to work has shifted from direct service to community building, but the core mission remains the same.

“It’s about how we form these relationships where we can be our authentic selves,” she said. “I wanted to find a company that believed in that, and find colleagues who could feel comfortable being themselves. We’re all a little quirky, right? Everyone has their own quirks, but it’s about how you can embrace that and make others feel welcomed.”

That philosophy extends to how she approaches hiring. Since joining AU in February 2023, Hoysgaard has overseen over 70 hires, each time asking herself one key question.

“I feel like it’s my job to protect all the good of the people here,” she explained. “During the interview process, I question whether this person is going to bring more good to the company, or is there a chance this person could bring some kind of energy that’s going to throw off the good in the company.”

Her filtering system is simple: Are they kind? Are they respectful? Are they nervous in the right way?

“When someone is nervous, to me, it signals how badly they want this,” she noted. “Someone who is overly nonchalant tells me that we don’t matter to them as much as I would want us to matter to them.”

Hoysgaard’s path to serving others has changed over time, but she feels satisfied with how her career mission has evolved. She’s found a way to channel her original drive into action by building a workplace community that aligns with her values.

“When I started my career, I was supporting the community, serving the community, improving a community for the better,” she reflected. “Now I get to keep doing that. The community that I’m building and shaping is the AU work community, and it’s the kind I’ve always hoped to be in.”

Building the teams that create opportunities for women athletes across three professional leagues, Hoysgaard has found the perfect intersection of her values and her work, even if it came from a place she never expected.

Siera Jones is the digital media reporter at Athletes Unlimited. You can follow her on Instagram and X @sieraajones.