David White named NFLPA’s interim executive director after Lloyd Howell’s resignation

By Dianna Russini, Rebecca Tauber and Lauren Merola

The NFL Players Association named David White, the former head of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, as its new interim executive director, the union announced Sunday night. The announcement comes after Lloyd Howell Jr. stepped down on July 17 following several controversies surrounding his leadership.

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​​”I am grateful to the NFLPA’s player leadership for entrusting me with the privilege and responsibility to guide their union as interim executive director,” White said in a statement Sunday. “It’s a duty I do not take lightly, and I’m committed to reestablishing trust and ensuring the union is serving its members best. I look forward to working with the entire NFLPA team to protect players’ health and safety, secure their financial well-being, and further strengthen their voice to shape their futures.”

An NFLPA source said a player representative from all 32 teams participated in Sunday’s board vote. The source said multiple internal and external candidates were considered and interviewed by the board over the past two weeks during the player-led process.

NFLPA president Jalen Reeves-Maybin said Sunday in a statement that the NFLPA plans to soon begin a search process for a permanent executive director. A high-ranking executive in the NFL offices told The Athletic last month that the league did not anticipate the interim executive director would be promoted to the full-time role.

“This process will continue to be player led, as the strength of our union has and will always lie with our membership,” Reeves-Maybin said Sunday.

White was a finalist for the NFLPA’s executive director job in 2023, when Howell was elected. He led SAG-AFTRA from 2009 to 2021, guiding it through the merger between SAG and AFTRA, which created a union with more than 160,000 members. The Los Angeles Times reported in 2021 that “he was widely credited with bringing stability to the union.”

White later worked as a strategic adviser to the venture capital firm Ulu Ventures and as CEO of the consulting firm 3CG Ventures, LLC. He has a law degree from Stanford, has practiced labor and employment law, and has served as board chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

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“David has spent much of his career fighting for collectively bargained rights in the labor movement and is committed to putting players first in all the union does,” Reeves-Maybin said in his statement. “We are confident that he will inspire solidarity and provide the necessary stability during this period of transition.”

Howell resigned last month amid several controversies brought to light by “Pablo Torre Finds Out,” ESPN and Pro Football Talk, including reports that the NFLPA agreed to a confidentiality agreement with the NFL to keep an arbitration decision from becoming public and concerns about a potential conflict of interest involving Howell, who was working as a paid part-time consultant for a private equity firm approved by the NFL to pursue minority ownership stakes in franchises.

That firm, the Carlyle Group, said that Howell “had no access to information about the NFL.” Howell resigned from the Carlyle Group days after he left the NFLPA. ESPN also reported that an outside investigator hired by the NFLPA received documents showing that Howell had charged the union for expenses that involved two visits to strip clubs.

Just days after Howell resigned, NFLPA chief strategy officer JC Tretter — initially considered a favorite to lead the union after Howell — also resigned. League sources told The Athletic that Don Davis, chief player officer for the NFLPA, was also considered a candidate for the interim role.

Meanwhile, federal investigators have been conducting a probe into some sports union officials and OneTeam Partners, a company that licenses athletes’ name, image and likeness rights. Five sports unions hold stakes in OneTeam, including the NFLPA, which has a 44 percent stake. An official inside the NFLPA raised concerns that union officials could enrich themselves via OneTeam, and last winter, the NFLPA hired an outside firm to conduct an investigation. At the time, Howell was a board member of the company as part of his role in NFLPA leadership.

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The NFLPA hired Howell in 2023 following a search process that some criticized for its lack of transparency. Before his work at the NFLPA, Howell spent 34 years at Booz Allen, including a stint as the company’s chief financial officer. Like his predecessor at the NFLPA, DeMaurice Smith, Howell did not have a background in sports. His bachelor’s degree is in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and he holds a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard.

(Photo: Rich Fury / Getty Images)

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