Menu
Forty Under 40

Forty Under 40: Rosalyn Durant

Rosalyn Durant

Age: 39
Company: ESPN
Title: Vice president, college sports programming
Where born: Florence, S.C.
Education: University of South Carolina (B.A., journalism and mass communications)

Favorite way to unwind: Cycling.
Cause supported: T. Howard Foundation.
Most thrilling/adventurous thing I've ever done: Is still in my future.
Person in the industry I'd most like to meet: Jerry Jones.
If I could change jobs with anyone for a day, it would be: Jerry Jones. How cool would it be to own the team you’ve loved since birth.
2015 will be a good year if: It continues the way it’s started.
My fellow Forty Under 40 class members would be surprised to know that I: Seriously dislike chocolate.


JOE FARAONI / ESPN IMAGES

Everywhere Rosalyn Durant looked as she sat in an AT&T Stadium suite at the College Football Playoff national championship game earlier this year, she saw the results of her labor. On the field, Ohio State and Oregon were competing in what became the most viewed telecast in cable television history. In one part of the suite, Walt Disney Co. Chairman and CEO Bob Iger sat with ESPN President John Skipper. In an adjacent suite, ABC’s late night host Jimmy Kimmel held court.

Durant was the ESPN executive most responsible for coordinating the plans to make sure the entire Disney company was participating in the event.

{podcast}

SBJ Podcast:
Forty Under 40 editor Mark Mensheha and Executive Editor Abraham Madkour discuss this year's class, some of the more interesting stories in it and how the selection process works.

“Roz’s leadership, relationships and interpersonal skills helped a lot of this come to fruition,” said Burke Magnus, ESPN’s senior vice president of programming acquisitions. “For the first time I can remember in my 20 years at ESPN, there was a meaningful engagement by the Disney Co. around an ESPN initiative.”

That engagement included having “Good Morning America” on site; producing CFP collector-edition comic books through Marvel; and creating a marketing plan with Disney’s theme parks.

Durant spent the months leading up to the College Football Playoff organizing numerous meetings and conference calls to make sure Disney was throwing its full support behind the event.

“I was proud of the way that ESPN showed up in year one,” said Durant, who’s worked her way up through the ESPN ranks since joining the company out of college in 1999. “The CFP had the bigness that we talked about. I felt incredibly proud to have some hand in the company’s plan and success.”

— John Ourand

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 18, 2024

Sports Business Awards nominees unveiled; NWSL's historic opening weekend and takeaways from CFP deal

ESPN’s Jay Bilas, BTN’s Meghan McKeown, and a deep dive into AppleTV+’s The Dynasty

On this week’s Sports Media Podcast from the New York Post and Sports Business Journal, ESPN’s Jay Bilas talks all things NCAA. Big Ten Network’s Meghan McKeown shares her insight into the Caitlin Clark craze. The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn chats all things Bean Town. And SBJ’s Xavier Hunter drops in to share his findings on how the NWSL is making a social media push.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2015/03/30/Forty-Under-40/Rosalyn-Durant.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2015/03/30/Forty-Under-40/Rosalyn-Durant.aspx

CLOSE