Ana Drucker on embracing curiosity, leadership, and her unpredictable path to AU
Ana Drucker never imagined she’d be working in sports, much less helping to run a professional league.
“My 12-year-old self would never have thought I would be working in sports in New York,” she said. “I’ve learned that you can make a lot of plans, but then, you kind of have to go with the flow.”
Now in her fifth year at Athletes Unlimited, Drucker holds the title of Chief Operating Officer and oversees a growing, multi-sport enterprise. But her path to that role started far from athletics—and with an unusual childhood passion.
“I was always passionate about money… not to have money, but just how things worked,” she said. “Even to this day, I go somewhere and I’m thinking, ‘Wow, I wonder how much it actually costs. And why are they selling it for this price?’”
That curiosity guided her into her family’s publishing house in Argentina, where she worked for seven years while earning degrees in both law and publishing. A few years in, she realized she was more drawn to the business side than the legal side.
“What really shaped me that early in my career was working in a small company where you had to do everything, and really taking ownership, because it was my family’s publishing house,” she reflected. “In that sense, it just allowed me a lot of freedom to explore different things and figure out what I liked, and what I didn’t.”
Still, Drucker felt she needed more formal training to match her responsibilities.
“I was working in the publishing business… I was so curious about all these questions about business, and I didn’t feel I had the right tools,” she said. “So I went to business school.”
She earned a Master of Laws from Boston University, focusing on intellectual property to build on her publishing background.
At the time, she and her husband expected to return to Argentina after a few years in the U.S. Again, the life plan mapped out by that 12-year-old in Argentina began to evolve.
“We ended up staying… and it’s been 22 years.”
Drucker’s entry into sports came after a series of roles in startups in the U.S., where she developed her leadership philosophy and found her professional niche. In 2020, she saw a job posting at a new sports organization called Athletes Unlimited.
“I just really applied to a role that was 100% me, which was finance, legal, and operations for a startup… and the sports part was like the least important thing for me,” she said.
But the more she learned about AU’s vision—player-driven decisions, weekly team drafts, individual scoring—the more intrigued she became.
“I remember [Jon Patricof] explaining how this thing was going to work, and it sounded a little crazy,” she said. “And I was like, ‘Oh, it sounds so fun.’”
She joined the league just as the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped the sports world. AU’s single-site model proved to be an unexpected advantage, and Drucker’s nontraditional background helped her embrace AU’s equally nontraditional format.
“Because I wasn’t originally in sports, I didn’t have to fight the crazy format,” she said. “I didn’t bring any baggage with me about how things should be.”
That outsider perspective also informed her leadership philosophy, which she sums up in three key principles: show up as yourself, care about the small things, and learn from mistakes.
“There’s no way to avoid messing up,” she said. “And I’ve always looked at it as an opportunity to see why there was a mistake, what didn’t work out… And then I try to think, ‘Okay, what is the lesson in that?’”
She also prioritizes people just as much as processes.
“I care about what we do, and I care about the people,” she said. “It makes it a better place to be.”
Respect, she added, is non-negotiable.
“Even when things are really bad, there’s always a way to be respectful… that part for me is always non-negotiable.”
Looking back, she acknowledges how different her reality is from the future she once imagined. Still, she’s proud of the league she’s helped shape and what it means for the future of women’s sports. And while she doesn’t claim to know exactly what comes next, she’s confident in the momentum.
“Honestly, it’s what we’ve built as a company, as an organization, and everybody that is part of it,” she reflects proudly. “We’re still 100 years behind men, but we’re catching up fast… I’m excited to see how fast things are moving, and all the potential for women’s sports.”
Siera Jones is the digital media reporter at Athletes Unlimited. You can follow her on Instagram and X @sieraajones.
