Full Name
Rosalyn Durant
Job Title
Senior Vice President
Company
ESPN/Disney
Bio
Rosalyn Durant is the senior vice president, college networks at ESPN. She was promoted to senior vice president in May 2015, overseeing ESPNU, SEC Network, Longhorn Network and the launch of the ACC Network. Her current role includes setting the strategic direction for each network.

In her previous role, she served as vice president, college sports programming and acquisitions overseeing all of ESPN’s college sports relationships, rights acquisitions and programming, including the inaugural College Football Playoff, NCAA Championships, football, men’s and women’s basketball, and Olympic sports in addition to ESPN’s coverage of high school sports and the management of ESPNU. She was named vice president, programming & acquisitions in 2007, and managed ESPN’s relationships with the NBA, Major League Lacrosse, Major League Soccer, FIFA, UEFA, US Soccer and Olympic sport leagues.

Durant played a significant role in the eight-year contract extension with the NBA announced in June 2007, which began during the 2008-09 season and included ESPN’s most-comprehensive digital rights package negotiated with any major professional sports league at the time.

ESPNU experienced dramatic increases under Durant’s supervision, surpassing expectations with distribution to approximately 75 million homes. The network has long-term carriage agreements with the top 10 distributors.

After interning with ESPN in affiliate sales and marketing in the summer of 1998, Durant joined that department full-time in 1999 as a coordinator. She rapidly advanced – becoming regional account executive (January 2000); account executive, southeast region (June 2000); senior account executive, western division (March 2002); manager, national accounts (October 2004), and senior director, national accounts (October 2005). In February 2006, she transferred to the programming department as a senior director, programming.

Durant serves on the board of the Charlotte YMCA, Charlotte Chamber of Commerce and Levine Children’s Hospital, and was named to Sports Business Journal’s 40 under 40 list in 2015. Last fall, she was featured on the cover of CableFax Magazine’s Most Powerful Women issue. Durant was honored for her inclusion on the CableFax Most Powerful Women list for 2017 and 2018, and was recently named to CableFax’s Most Influential Minorities list for 2018.

Durant is on the executive committee for the Board of Directors of the T. Howard Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, charitable organization dedicated to increasing diversity in the multimedia and entertainment industry, and is an alumnae of the Foundation’s internship program. She was added to the University of Central Florida’s DeVos Sport Business Management Board of Advisors in 2014 and provides insights and advisement on the school’s sport business curriculum and initiatives.

Durant graduated in 1999 from the University of South Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism and a minor in marketing. While in college, Durant was an on-air personality with WYNN-FM from June 1996 to May 1998 and a news reporter/anchor with WCFG-TV and WUSC-FM from August 1998 to December 1998. In addition, she also was a marketing and business relations intern with Turner Broadcasting Systems in summer 1997.
Rosalyn Durant