Laura C. Gentile — Senior Vice President of espnW & Women's Initiatives at ESPN

Ms. Laura C. Gentile serves as Senior Vice President of espnW & Women's Initiatives at ESPN, Inc. since November, 2015. Ms. Gentile served as Vice President at ESPN, Inc. since January, 2006. Ms. Gentile played an instrumental role in the development of ESPN on ABC, which brought the ESPN brand to the ABC television platform and to 20 million additional viewers. Previously, She served as senior director, brand management within ESPN marketing. In that position, she was responsible for driving the strategic marketing direction for ESPN properties such as the NFL, SportsCenter, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, ESPN Outdoors, The ESPY Awards, and ESPN The Weekend. She also worked directly with ESPN/ABC Customer Marketing & Sales on trade advertising, Upfront events and co-promotional efforts. She joined ESPN in January 2003 as director, advertising and marketing. Her first assignment was the positioning, marketing and promotion of ESPN25, ESPN's year-long 25th anniversary campaign that celebrated sports fans and created ESPN's first community of fans online as part of The Season of the Fan marketing platform. Prior to joining ESPN, Ms. Gentile was senior partner, management supervisor at Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide on the IBM account. Her team led the development of IBM's e-business infrastructure campaign that earned the 2002 GRAND EFFIE for advertising effectiveness, a first in Ogilvy's history. While an undergraduate, Ms. Gentile was a two-time team captain in field hockey, garnering All-America and All-ACC honors. She led Duke to their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament and was named to the ACC's 50th Anniversary field hockey team. Ms. Gentile currently serves on the Board of the Collegiate Athlete Pre-Medical Experience (CAPE), a year-round program for female athletes, offered by the Duke University Medical Center and the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center, to assist them as they embark on careers in Medicine. Ms. Gentile graduated from Duke University in 1994 with a double major in English and political science, and earned an MBA in Marketing and Organizational Behavior from Boston College's Carroll Graduate School of Management in 1996.