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ESPN President Shares Career Advice, Longhorn Network Insight

Get up early. Love what you do. Watch out for other people. Find balance. Do everything with integrity.

That is the advice that George Bodenheimer, president and CEO of ESPN, gave to students on Sept. 8, 2011, during a public talk with Eric Hirst, associate dean of the McCombs School of Business, as a part of the VIP Distinguished Speaker Series. The series is presented annually by the Undergraduate Business Council.

During the talk, Bodenheimer explained his climb to the top of ESPN and the current state of the new Longhorn Network.

Bodenheimer held many odd jobs throughout his younger years, including pumping gas, caddying and bartending. After graduating from Denison University in 1980 with a bachelor’s degree in economics, Bodenheimer knew that he wanted to find a way to use his degree in the sports arena.

When every team in Major League Baseball turned him down, a family friend helped set Bodenheimer up with a job working as a driver for a mailroom at ESPN. The job paid less than a year of tuition cost at Denison, but Bodenheimer decided to look at it as a career decision, not a money decision. It turned out to be a smart choice because Bodenheimer has since climbed his way to the top of the ESPN ladder and has become the company’s longest-tenured top executive, having now worked at ESPN for 30 years.

Bodenheimer told students you should always be a “student of the business” and continue learning and applying new knowledge throughout your career. Those people, Bodenheimer said, are the kind of people he looks for when considering promotions.

“Never stop learning,” Bodenheimer said. “Apply what you are doing. Have passion, integrity, and optimism.”

When Hirst and Bodenheimer opened the floor for student questions, many people asked about the current state of the Longhorn Network. Bodenheimer explained that he considers the network a success right off the bat, based on its first-rate production, but admits that they need to continue working on distribution. Bodenheimer is excited for the possibilities the network has for the university, as well as for opening Austin to the world, helping it to continue growing and evolving.

Bodenheimer also shared that ESPN has not considered creating networks for any other universities in the country.

Watch a Longhorn Network commercial starring Bevo himself:

Nerves in the audience were calmed when Bodenheimer explained that ESPN has contracts to broadcast games held in all of the college football conferences. If UT leaves the Big 12 and conferences realign, ESPN will have to adapt to the way they wish to organize.

Bodenheimer also answered many other questions from students on a broad range of topics. Audience members learned that Bodenheimer is on the fence about adding more mixed martial arts programming to ESPN, favors the Giants to win the Super Bowl and lists Arnold Palmer as his favorite athlete.

After all that he has accomplished in his career, Bodenheimer says he feels proudest of himself when he is watching ESPN employees working together and maintaining family values, two virtues that his parents instilled in him.

“I love what I do here at ESPN,” Bodenheimer said. “I believe in the people of ESPN…That’s the culture of the company and that’s what I’m most proud of.”

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This entry was posted on Saturday, September 24th, 2011 and is filed under University Quotes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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