Laura Gentile

EVP, Marketing & Founder, espnW

Laura Gentile serves as Executive Vice President, Marketing, ESPN. In this role, she is responsible for leading the marketing for all of ESPN, inclusive of all brands, platforms, shows, and events. Gentile oversees all creative output for ESPN Marketing, overall media strategy, spending and budgeting, and fan engagement.

She is responsible for the health of the ESPN Brand and has crafted campaigns that drive that health inclusive of “There’s No Place Like Sports” and the renowned “This is SportsCenter” campaign. Gentile helps create the marketing, advertising and promotions for critical partners including the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and F1, and vital priorities such as the ESPN App, Fantasy Football, and ESPN+, ESPN’s first streaming service. Gentile has been instrumental in fostering a culture that embraces creative excellence and drives new audience growth, engaging youth, women, Hispanic and black audiences throughout the ESPN ecosystem.

Gentile was named to the 2023 Forbes "World's Most Influential CMOs" list, as well as the Forbes “Most Powerful Women in U.S. Sports” list.

Gentile has previously served as EVP, Commercial Marketing for The Walt Disney Company networks, overseeing Creative Studios, Distribution Marketing and the brand marketing of Disney networks ABC, FX, Disney Channel and NatGeo. She previously held a variety of strategic roles at ESPN, giving her a unique purview. She has served as SVP, Business Operations and Content Strategy, a role that included strategy development and oversight of the business operations of the Content organizations. Simultaneously, she led espnW and Women’s Initiatives at ESPN and was promoted to senior vice president in November 2015.

Gentile was instrumental in launching espnW, ESPN’s first and only dedicated business built to serve women, which debuted in December 2010.

Talks About
#mediastrategy #budgeting #marketing

Preferred Locations
#NorthAmerica