ESPN said today that that Ed Durso, marking 28 years at the sports programmer this week, is retiring at year's end. ESPN president John Skipper said in a note to company staff that he had tried to convince the longtime lieutenant to stay on for longer but those efforts had come up short.
"During his time here, Ed has reported directly to four ESPN Presidents and is one of our company’s longest serving board members," Skipper wrote. "He has been an integral part of helping us secure many of our major rights and distribution deals, launched our first business development unit which gave birth to both The Magazine and ESPN.com, and has represented our company with members of Congress, FCC commissioners, governors and Presidents. Virtually every major business decision ESPN has reached over the last three decades was benefited by Ed's sound judgment, reason and insight. Notably, this was all done with uncommon humility and grace."
Skipper said chief counsel Diane Morse will take Durso's seat on the ESPN Board "and, along with Chris LaPlaca, SVP Corporate Communications, will be a direct report to me. And, effective October 1st, we will transition the reporting relationships of Kevin Martinez, VP Corporate Citizenship, and Mike Heimbach, VP Global Security and Facilities Operations, to Paul Richardson. Paul will work alongside Ed over the next few months helping to ensure that Ed's duties across ESPN and TWDC transition seamlessly."
"We will celebrate Ed’s incredible career in the coming months but for now, we offer our thanks and congratulations for a multitude of jobs very well done for a very long time," Skipper said.
Durso has been executive VP of administration since 1996, with oversight of legal and government affairs on the local, state and national levels; corporate communications; security; corporate citizenship; and ESPN’s worldwide facilities, ESPN notes in his bio.
