Sachem alum Laura Gentile continues to move up the ladder at ESPN. She was promoted to Senior Vice President, espnW and Women’s Initiatives last week.
According to a statement released by ESPN, Gentile’s leadership has been central in building the espnW business over the past five years and, as a result, she will take on a broader role focused on expanding ESPN’s presence in the lives of the many women who love sports.
Gentile, who played field hockey at Sachem and Duke, garnering All-American honors, is the founder of espnW, which made its debut in December 2010 as a web platform, but has blossomed into a vibrant multimedia powerhouse at the world wide leader in sports.
“Laura has done a fantastic job in creating espnW and focusing our company’s efforts on serving female sports fans and covering women’s sports,” said John Kosner, Executive Vice President, Digital and Print Media, ESPN, in a statement. “With the work of Laura and her team, we believe we can significantly expand the impact ESPN has among female sports fans in all our media and enhance the opportunities we can offer our marketing partners to reach women.”
Gentile worked on a number of projects at ESPN prior to spearheading women’s initiatives, including the development of EPSN25, a year-long campaign to honor the 25th anniversary of the network, which she joined in January 2013.
On the playing field, Gentile was one of the best student-athletes at Duke in the 1990s. Besides being All-American in field hockey, she was also All-ACC, a member of the ACC’s 50th Anniversary team, and led Duke to its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
-Words by Chris R. Vaccaro