Biografia
Freddy Rolon serves as vice president, programming and acquisitions at ESPN, and is responsible for leading the overall content strategy and schedule for ESPN's linear networks, including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPNEWS, a role he assumed June 2020. Rolon also oversees all aspects of the ESPN Deportes business.
In his tenure at ESPN, Rolón has played an integral role in the development of the company's content strategy to reach bilingual Hispanics consuming sports content across all of ESPN's English-language platforms. He works closely with ESPN's programming, production, audio, digital and print media teams, to maximize the relevance and appeal of ESPN's English-language products for U.S. Hispanic fans.
Rolón, who joined ESPN in 2004, held the position of vice president of ESPN Deportes programming and business initiatives from 2011-2016. In that role, he was responsible for overseeing all programming for ESPN Deportes, including acquisitions, development and scheduling. Prior to that, he served as senior director of ESPN Deportes Radio and business initiatives, where he was instrumental in developing a five-year plan for the network to achieve growth targets through a new sales structure and reinvestment in US-specific programming. Through this, he was able to identify, create and develop initiatives that produced sustainable, long-term growth through deal evaluation. He also worked with business leaders to manage start-up phases of new business initiatives, including the ESPN Local initiative.
Before officially joining ESPN in 2004, Rolón was an intern for ESPN International in the summer of 2003. After completing his MBA, he joined ESPN as senior manager of marketing for ESPN Deportes. He was promoted to senior director, marketing and integration of ESPN Radio (2005-2007), where he oversaw all the marketing efforts for ESPN Radio and ESPN Deportes Radio.
Rolón has received numerous accolades for his work in the media industry, including being named to The National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC) Most Influential Minorities in Media (2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019) and being named to the 2017 Alumni's Society's Top 25 Latino Leaders. In 2018, Rolon was named to The National Association for Multi-ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC) board, joining a distinguished group of executives of color supporting NAMIC's work on multi-cultural diversity, equity and inclusion in the communications industry. He is also on the board of Partnership with Children, a non-profit that provides critical mental health services for students, engages families in the school community, and supports schools in low-income communities across all five boroughs of New York City. Rolón graduated from Wesleyan University with a bachelor of arts in economics and government and later received a master's of business administration from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
