Photo: EDWARD M. PIO RODA / TURNER SPORTS
W
hen Shaquille O’Neal announced his retirement as a player, Turner Sports talent executive Tara August was surprised — but made plans immediately to snag the all-star center as an on-air analyst.
Tara August
Turner Sports |
Vice President,
Talent Relations
“I flew to Orlando to his official retirement news conference and pulled his agent aside and said, ‘As soon as you guys are ready to talk about his next steps in television … ’ and he said, ‘We’re ready now.’”
Turner competed with a number of networks to land O’Neal and ultimately signed him as an on-air analyst in July 2011, about a month after he retired.
At Turner, August’s role is to oversee hirings, firings, guest bookings and management of all talent across television platforms TNT, TBS and NBA TV, and its digital platforms, including NBA.com. She’d been at the company for several years, working in public relations, when, in 2009, Jeff Ogan, then Turner’s executive in charge of talent, asked her if she’d consider a job on the talent side. August recalled, “I said, ‘Are you crazy? I am a PR person. I am going to do PR the rest of my life.’”
Prior to joining at Turner, August worked at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide and owned her own agency, Endeavor Sports PR & Marketing.
She opted to take on the new challenge at Turner, though, and in the years that have followed, she has moved up from being a manager on the talent side to a director, then senior director and now vice president.
— Liz Mullen
- Notable professional achievement: Negotiating the recent renewal contracts for our “Inside the NBA” studio team (Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal) and keeping the circus going for many more years.
- Biggest professional disappointment: Out of college, I had a job interview with the San Diego Chargers and didn’t get the position. That led me to pursue my master’s degree in sport management and ultimately land a job at Turner Sports. I wouldn’t change a thing.
- Best advice received: Don’t be afraid to diversify your career path; great leaders have a mosaic of experiences.
- Causes supported: National Association of Black Journalists, Atlanta Mission, Esperanza International.
- Woman in sports business I’d most like to meet: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. She’s made very unique and interesting decisions for Yahoo in the sports space and continues to cultivate notable talent across the board.
- Most memorable sporting events attended: The Mayweather/Pacquiao fight. Although the bout itself was lackluster, the energy, the hype and the thrills leading up to it were like nothing I’ve ever experienced at another major sporting event.
- If my colleagues were asked to describe me, they would say I: Can find humor in anything.
