James Pitaro ’91, a former football player on East Hill and one of several high-ranking Cornell alumni in the world of sports, has been named the president of flagship sports media outlet ESPN, the Walt Disney Company, ESPN’s parent company, announced on Monday. Prior to being named ESPN’s eighth president, Pitaro led Yahoo! “I had no idea what I wanted to do when I graduated, but was really attracted to the variety of academic options at Cornell.”After graduating from Cornell, Pitaro earned his J.D. Pitaro joins Dick Schaap ’55 and Jeremy Schaap ’91 in the ranks of ESPN. (Attn: @CornellSports) #ISinkFurtherDownTheSportsAlumniLadder — Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) March 5, 2018Pitaro’s promotion within Disney comes less than three months after the previous ESPN president, John Skipper, abruptly resigned, “citing a substance addiction problem.” George Bodenheimer, a former ESPN president and executive chairman, oversaw the transition process and served as interim chairman.

Source: Daily Sun March 05, 2018 21:11 UTC