Disney Media Entertainment & Distribution Networks promoted Laura Gentile to executive VP, commercial marketing, networks and ESPN, a new position, as president Debra O’Connell builds her executive team.

Disney created the media and entertainment distribution group in October.

O'Connell, who had been president and general manager of WABC-TV, New York, was named head of its network division in November.

The unit also brought in Nancy Lee as senior VP of commercial marketing & integrated planning.

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Gentile had been senior VP of marketing & social media at ESPN. She will report to both O'Connell and Jimmy Pitaro, chairman of ESPN and sports content for Disney.

“Jimmy and I are both delighted to have such a capable and creative executive in Laura who can lead across all of these critical areas of our business," O'Connell said in an internal announcement.

“Those of you who know Laura, know that she is a strategic marketer who approaches her work with passion and commitment. Over the course of her career at ESPN, she has led truly innovative and impactful marketing campaigns – including the creation of ESPN’s transcendent 'There’s No Place Like Sports' brand campaign and the long-running and iconic 'This is SportsCenter'– and creative across every major sports franchise. Laura has also been, and continues to be, a leading champion for women’s sports.”

Lee had been senior VP and chief of staff for Disney Executive Chairman Bob Iger and had been a part of Disney’s corporate strategy team. In her new post with the marketing team, Lee will report to Gentile and oversee brand marketing & synergy, branded content, marketing operations and the Disney Movie Insiders platform.

Lee will also report directly to O'Connell to oversee integrated planning and serve as Iger’s chief of staff.

Also reporting to Gentile will be David Kite, senior VP, product management and distribution strategy.

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The new execs join the other members of the DMED Networks team, including Sean Cocchia, who heads business operating for Disney and National Geographic Channels and Franchise Management; David Miller, who leads the business operations functions of National Geographic Media, which includes the P&L, strategy, and subscriber experience for the print and digital experiences of their iconic magazines; Chuck Saftler, the former FX Networks exec who now heads up Business Operations for ABC, Freeform and FX Networks and Russell Wolff, who is in charge of business operations for ESPN's linear networks. He's also executive VP and GM of of ESPN Plus.

O'Connell also leads the ABC Owned Stations.

LAURA GENTILE

TITLE: Senior Vice President, espnW and Women’s Initiatives

COMPANY: ESPN

CAREE R HIGHLIGHTS: Before ESPN, Gentile was senior partner, management supervisor at Ogilvy & Mather. As part of ESPN’s office of the president (George Bodenheimer), she was instrumental in creating the “ESPN on ABC” brand, which is used on ABC for sports event and documentary programming. ESPN and ABC are both part of The Walt Disney Co.

QUOTABLE: “I’ve worked on espnW for seven or eight years, but the early years were about research, about just getting started and building a team. It really wasn’t until about four years ago that I felt like we were able to surround ourselves with really great, expert people. And that makes all the difference.”

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People used to snicker at Laura Gentile when she was a kid because she played sports with boys all the time. “People thought I was a little strange because I loved sports so much. And I remember feeling like an outcast at Brownies, because I just couldn’t relate to what they were doing,” she recalled with a laugh.

But life as a jock served her well, eventually leading her to create a series of properties at ESPN expressly for people like herself: women who have a passion for sports.

No one would think of her as an outcast anymore. “It’s funny how a lot of life experiences sometimes add up to the perfect job,” said Gentile, who’s senior vice president of espnW and women’s initiatives.

ATHLETE WITH HONORS

She was a star athlete in high school on Long Island and at Duke University, where she was a two-time field hockey captain and garnered All-America and All-ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) honors.

After receiving an MBA in marketing and organizational behavior at Boston College, she had an early stint at Ogilvy & Mather. She jumped to ESPN in an advertising and marketing role and rose up through the ranks, eventually becoming the network’s vice president and chief of staff.

She then took the espnW ball and ran with it. “I’ve always felt women had to be a part of our future at ESPN in order for us to be relevant and continue to grow,” Gentile said. “Women are a super-powerful audience for us to serve. And it’s ultimately an opportunity for the entire industry, to serve women more equally.”

espnW started out as a blog about six years ago. Since then, it has stretched into a series of assets that include a website, radio, television, film and event brand extensions both in the States and internationally. Brazil was the first country to pick up on the espnW opportunity, and other overseas spinoffs are in the works.

espnW’s Women + Sports Summit, a two-day event that features top athletes, is now in its eighth year. About a year ago, the brand added a one-day spinoff summit in Chicago and a strand of campus conversations about women’s sports in seven to 10 universities.

Last July and August, espnW attracted about 12 million unique visitors per month, partly due to the Olympics. Its sports experts add their perspectives to programs on ESPN, including SportsCenter and Outside the Lines, garnering further awareness for the brand.

Said former U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team member Julie Foudy, now an ESPN analyst and espnW contributor: “Laura really has been a trailblazer in this space for women. She created a model that many people didn’t believe in. I’m sure there were a lot of people internally in the early stages that thought, ‘This is never going to make it.’ I think her greatest accomplishment is showing the value of [the female sports] market.”

“To me, Laura embodies espnW, and that’s what makes her such an effective executive,” John Kosner, ESPN’s executive vice president, digital and print media, added. “She willed it to happen and brings her passion to bear on it every day.”

When the huge issue of domestic violence and the National Football League became a focus of national attention, espnW talent became voices of authority on other channels as well, like CNN and MSNBC.

While all of that was going on, Gentile was helping to forge the Global Sports Mentoring Program with the U.S. State Department, which pairs emerging women leaders from around the world with top U.S. women executives. She also is a key influencer at Sports 4 Life, a grant program developed by espnW and the Women’s Sports Foundation that aims to increase the participation and retention of African-American and Hispanic girls in sports.

While the brand she created chronicles the feats of amazing sportswomen, Gentile has several important males in her life. There’s her husband, Tom Baggott, whom she met while working at Ogilvy & Mather. There’s her dad, who went to every game Gentile played in, became her softball coach and her “No. 1 golf partner.”

There are her two sons, Will and Beau. (She’s pregnant with a third child, on the way in April.) And then there’s her mentor, George Bodenheimer, a former president of both ESPN and ABC Sports.

“George demystified corporate leadership for me. He was a very relatable guy. He used his better judgment and sought out information and then he was decisive,” Gentile said.

Another mentor is Christine Driessen, executive vice president and CFO at ESPN. “She’s a mentor to many rising women at ESPN,” Gentile said. She noted the significant role Driessen has played during her 20-plus years at ESPN, making sure major decisions were truly right for the company. “She’s a truthsayer. She’s the backbone of what’s right and true at lot of times.”

FINDING FANS YEAR-ROUND

Gentile’s role in finding what’s “right and true” for espnW is far from done. One challenge involves a certain brainteaser: “Outside of the big events, like the U.S. Open and the Women’s World Cup, how do you draw people to the website?” Foudy said. “How do you get them interested in a women’s softball league or the women’s ice hockey team at the Olympics? There’s so much great content out there that’s not in the mainstream.”

Kosner notes another “to do” item: “Our goal is not just to create a great ESPN property for women, but rather to bring more women to ESPN. That’s relatively new behavior, so it’s a challenge.”

“We’ve built a strong foundation,” Gentile said, “but to really change the industry, and for the industry to truly be inclusive of women — as fans, as commentators, as journalists, as athletes — there’s still a long way to go.”

Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) Thursday named Scripps Network Interactive executive Kathleen Finch as its “Woman of the Year,” the organization’s highest individual accolade.

Finch, chief programming content & brand officer for Scripps, will receive the "Woman of the Year" award – given to a leader who has made increasingly significant contributions throughout her career to her company and the overall cable telecommunications industry – during WICT’s  Sept. 19 Touchstones Luncheon in New York in conjunction with the annual WICT Leadership Conference that's part of Cable's Diversity Week.

Also at the luncheon WICT will honor Laura Gentile, senior vice president, espnW and Women's Initiatives at ESPN and Mary McLaughlin, senior vice president, Beltway Region for Comcast Cable, with its "Women to Watch" award, which recognizes leaders who show tremendous promise for transforming the industry through her professional accomplishments.

"WICT is proud to recognize and honor these three highly accomplished professionals," said Maria Brennan, CAE, president & CEO, WICT in a statement. "All of our honorees exemplify the WICT Touchstones of Leadership and offer other women compelling role models to emulate. We look forward to showcasing their achievements during this year's Touchstones Luncheon as part of Diversity Week 2016."