Beverly Leon is a former American footballer and entrepreneur. She played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

in the

FA Women's Super League The Women's Super League (WSL), currently known as the Barclays Women's Super League (BWSL) for sponsorship reasons, is the highest league of women's football in England. Established in 2010, it is run by the Football Association and features t ...

. She previously played for the Icelandic Stjarnan club.

Biography

Leon grew up in

Wrentham, Massachusetts Wrentham ( ) is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 12,178 at the 2020 census. History In 1660, five men from Dedham were sent to explore the lakes near George Indian's wigwam and to report back to the ...

, and attended Milton Academy, where she was ''

Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' Player of the Year, and the recipient of Milton's Priscilla Bailey Award for demonstrating "exceptional individual skills and teamwork as well as sportsmanship." Leon then attended

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and played for Columbia's varsity women's soccer team. After graduating from Columbia in 2014, Leon worked for

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...

in the global capital markets division. After a year at Morgan Stanley, Leon played for

Stjarnan women's football The Stjarnan women's football team is the women's football department of the Ungmennafélagið Stjarnan multi-sport club. It is based in Garðabær, Iceland, and currently plays in the Úrvalsdeild kvenna, the top-tier women's football league ...

and then signed to play for

Sunderland A.F.C. Ladies 'Sunderland Association Football Club Women' is an English women's football club that plays in the . They play their home games at the Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground in Hetton-le-Hole, in the City of Sunderland, Tyne and Wear. Sunderland won ...

as a midfielder. She was the top scorer in the team's 2017 Spring Series. Leon then pursued her education at Green Templeton College, Oxford and

Columbia Business School Columbia Business School (CBS) is the business school of Columbia University, a Private university, private research university in New York City. Established in 1916, Columbia Business School is one of six Ivy League business schools and is one ...

. In 2018, she founded Local Civics, which is a startup that uses game-based learning to encourage kids to strengthen their civic leadership skills. Leon was named to the 2022

Forbes 30 Under 30 ''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 is a set of lists of people under 30 years old issued annually by ''Forbes'' magazine and some of its regional editions. The American lists recognize 600 business and industry figures, with 30 selected in twenty industries ...

list.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leon, Beverly Living people Soccer players from Massachusetts Columbia Lions women's soccer players Stjarnan women's football players Sunderland A.F.C. Women players Columbia Business School alumni Morgan Stanley employees American women company founders Alumni of Templeton College, Oxford People from Wrentham, Massachusetts 1992 births American women's soccer players Women's association football midfielders