Bio

Laura Gentile is Senior Vice President at ESPN, overseeing Marketing, Social Media, the espnW business and expanding ESPN’s presence in the lives of women who love sports. Gentile is the founder of espnW, which launched in Dec. 2010 as a blog. espnW is now a multimedia business encompassing digital, social, television, films and events such as The espnW: Women + Sports Summit. Prior to envisioning, researching and launching espnW, Gentile served as vice president, assistant to the president at ESPN. In that role, Gentile worked directly with George Bodenheimer, President, ESPN and ABC Sports, on all aspects of the company’s business. Before working in the office of the president, Gentile was senior director of brand management within ESPN’s consumer marketing department. And prior to ESPN, she honed her marketing and advertising skills as a senior partner, management supervisor at Ogilvy & Mather. Gentile was appointed to the U.S. Department of State’s Council to Empower Women and Girls Through Sports, developed by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. She was a fellow of WICT’s Betsy Magness Leadership Institute Class XVII, and was named to Street and Smith’s Sports Business Journal Forty Under 40 Class of 2012 and an SBJ Game-Changer. In 2013, Gentile received the Advertising Women of NY Changing the Game Paradigm Shift Award and WICT’s Signature Accolade for espnW’s Global Sports Mentoring Program. Gentile currently serves on the Women’s Sports Foundation Advisory Panel. A graduate of Duke University with a double major in English and Political Science, she earned an MBA in Marketing and Organizational Behavior from Boston College’s Carroll Graduate School of Management in 1996. While an undergraduate, Gentile garnered All-America and All-ACC honors in field hockey and was a two-time team captain. She led Duke to their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament and was named to the ACC’s 50th Anniversary field hockey team.