Terdema L. Ussery II is president and CEO of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks[1].

Ussery is in his eighth year as president and CEO of the Dallas Mavericks. He serves as an alternate governor for the Mavericks on the NBA[2]Board of Governors and is a member of the WNBA[3] board of directors.

Under Ussery’s direction, the Dallas Mavericks has experienced increased corporate sponsorship, ticket sales, television revenues and community awareness.

He was ranked 21st in Sports Illustrated's "Top 101 Most Influential Minorities in Sports,” as well as “Corporate Executive of the Year” by Black Enterprise magazine.

Formerly, Ussery was president of Nike Sports Management. Prior to that, he was commissioner of the Continental Basketball Association. In 1999, then Texas Governor George W. Bush appointed him to a six-year term on the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Ussery sits on several other corporate and community boards and serves as CEO of HDNet[4], the nation's first high-definition television network. Last summer, Ussery was elected to serve on Princeton University’s board of trustees.

Ussery grew up in the Watts section of South Central Los Angeles. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1981 at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and a master's degree in 1984 from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. In 1987, Ussery earned a law degree from the University of California at Berkeley, where he served as executive editor of the California Law Review.