ESPN Promotes 15-Year Veteran Laura Gentile to Lead Marketing Team

The new role comes after 15 years with the organization for Gentile, who joined ESPN in 2003 as director of advertising and marketing. She has moved through a variety of positions including vp, chief of staff and founder of espnW, the multiplatform project “dedicated to engaging and inspiring women through sports.”

Her most recent title was svp, business operations and content strategy for espnW and other women’s initiatives across the company. One example is the espnW: Women + Sports Summit, now in its ninth year, which kicks off next week.

“Laura’s keen eye for marketing and her insight into our brand, given her vast experience across a number of ESPN businesses, has contributed to her being the right person at the right time to lead this important effort and dynamic group,” read a statement from ESPN president and Disney Media Networks co- chair Jimmy Pitaro.

The promotion marks a return to marketing as Gentile and her team will oversee all of ESPN’s brand efforts across all media with the ultimate goal of expanding its reach and gaining new viewership.

She succeeds Wanda Young, who joined ESPN from Walmart in 2016 and now moves into parent company Disney’s cross-brand ad sales group run by Rita Ferro.

Gentile graduated from Duke University and earned her MBA in marketing and organizational behavior at Boston College’s Carroll Graduate School of Management before starting her marketing career at Ogilvy New York.