Laura Gentile Biography

In November 2015, Laura Gentile was promoted to senior vice president, espnW and Women's Initiatives. She was instrumental in the launch of espnW, ESPN's first dedicated business built to serve women who love sports, which began as a blog in December 2010 and evolved in April 2011 to an enhanced web site at espnW.com that aims to become the premier site for women's sports and provides commentary, in-depth features, and storytelling on the sports world at large. espnW is now a multimedia company that includes digital, social, television, films, and events like The espnW: Women + Sports Summit. Gentile was vice president and chief of staff at ESPN before researching and launching espnW. Gentile personally worked with George Bodenheimer, President of ESPN, Inc. and ABC Sports, on all aspects of the company's business in that capacity. She was a key figure in the creation of "ESPN on ABC," which brought the ESPN brand to the ABC television platform. Gentile was senior director of brand management in ESPN's consumer marketing department before joining the president's office. She was in charge of driving the marketing strategy for properties such as the NFL, SportsCenter, and the NHL in that capacity. Gentile joined ESPN as director of advertising and marketing in January 2003. Her first task was to position and promote ESPN25, ESPN's year-long 25th anniversary campaign that applauded sports fans and established ESPN's first online fan community. Gentile worked as a senior partner and management supervisor at Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, where she honed her marketing and advertising skills. Her team was instrumental in the creation of IBM's e-business infrastructure campaign, which won the 2002 GRAND EFFIE for advertising effectiveness, a first in Ogilvy & Mather's history. Gentile was a Betsy Magness Leadership Academy Class XVII fellow, as well as a member of Street and Smith's Sports Business Journal Forty Under 40 Class of 2012 and an SBJ Game-Changer. She was appointed to the United States Department of State's Council to Inspire Women and Girls Through Sports, which was established by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Gentile received the Advertising Women of New York Changing the Game Paradigm Shift Award in April 2013, as well as WICT's Signature Acclaim for espnW's Global Sports Mentoring Program. Gentile was recently appointed to the Advisory Panel of the Women's Sports Foundation. She was one of 17 participants in the inaugural Women in Sports and Events (WISE) as well as Tuck Executive Education at Dartmouth's Executive Leadership Academy, a programme designed specifically to advance and retain female executives in the sports industry, in November 2014. She managed to earn an MBA in Marketing and Organizational Behavior from Boston College's Carroll Graduate School of Management in 1996 after graduating from Duke University in 1994 with a double major in English and also political science. Gentile was a two-time team captain and earned All-America and All-ACC honours in field hockey as an undergraduate. She did lead Duke to its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance and was named to the ACC's 50th Anniversary field hockey team.

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