[PAST EVENT] ESPN president George Bodenheimer to make public presentation

October 19, 2011
8pm
Location
Sadler Center, Commonwealth Auditorium
200 Stadium Dr
Williamsburg, VA 23185Map this location
George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN, Inc. and ABC Sports, and co-chairman of Disney Media Networks, will speak at 8 p.m.

The event will be held in the College's Sadler Center, Commonwealth Auditorium, and is free and open to the public. Bodenheimer's speech is expected to focus on ESPN's past, present and future. A question-and-answer period will follow.

Bodenheimer joined the company as a driver in the mailroom in January 1981, shortly after graduating from Denison University. He rose through the ranks to become executive vice president for sales and marketing in 1996. In 1998, he was named ESPN's fifth president since the company's launch in 1979.

Now 53, Bodenheimer is the company's longest-tenured top executive and has led an unprecedented period of growth for ESPN. In 2003, he was also appointed president of ABC Sports, overseeing all the multimedia sports assets of The Walt Disney Company, and in 2004 he assumed the role of co-chairman, Disney Media Networks, encompassing strategic planning for Disney's media assets.

As president of ESPN, Inc., Bodenheimer leads more than 50 business entities -- including seven 24-hour domestic television networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, ESPNEWS, ESPN Deportes, ESPNU, ESPN 3D); 46 international television networks; ESPN3.com (broadband); ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS and ESPNU HD simulcast services; ESPN Regional Television; ESPN.com; ESPN Radio; ESPN The Magazine and books; and other growing new businesses including ESPN Mobile (wireless), ESPN Rise and espnW.

Under Bodenheimer's leadership, ABC Sports has one of the broadcast industry's most comprehensive sports programming schedules and contributes to ESPN offering more leading platforms than any other sports media entity. ESPN has acquired a collection of rights unparalleled in scope, including Monday Night Football, NBA, MLB, NASCAR, college football and the BCS, college basketball, The Masters, Premier League, golf's British Open and tennis' U.S. Open and Wimbledon.

Bodenheimer has led numerous company and industry-leading innovations in integrated sales and marketing, original programming, rights and business acquisitions, and new technologies, highlighted by ESPN's state-of-the-art digital center in Bristol, a West Coast production facility in Los Angeles, an innovation lab in Orlando and, in conjunction with Disney, a media and ad lab in Austin. He established an organizational structure with leaders focusing on six areas: content across all media, technology, international, sales and marketing, finance and administration.

Bodenheimer also elevated the company's numerous corporate outreach initiatives, most notably with The V Foundation for Cancer Research, which was founded by ESPN and the late basketball coach and commentator Jim Valvano. The V Foundation has raised more than $100 million since 1993 and 100% of cash donations go directly to research.

While at W&M, Bodenheimer also will lecture a class taught by former ABC Sports vice president Jim Spence on television in sports today.
Contact

Kristina M. Neuhart, Public Relations Coordinator, The Roy R. Charles Center, Blow Hall, 267, (757) 221-2460