Derzis spent nearly three decades building ESPN’s college sports media and event business
Former ESPN senior executive Pete Derzis has accepted a new role to serve as Senior Advisor at Bespoke Sports & Entertainment. Derzis was at the center of ESPN’s success in college sports for 31 years and recently embarked on a new endeavor to assist companies on their strategic growth.
“We have worked alongside Pete for many years as we continued to expand our college sports partnership business,” said Bespoke CEO Mike Boykin. “We are committed to offering our clients senior-level counsel and we look forward to Pete’s unique insight and approach having an immediate impact. Pete was instrumental in the expansion of ESPN’s college sports events and content distribution business and we hope his strategic advisement will have a similar impact on our agency.”
Derzis retired earlier this year from ESPN as Senior Vice President of College Sports Programming and ESPN Events. In that role he led ESPN's events division, which owns and operates 35 events including college football games, bowl games, basketball events and more. Earlier in his ESPN tenure he managed ESPN Regional Television – the largest syndicator of college sports programming.
Prior to ESPN, Derzis served as associate athletic director at Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham. He was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2017 as a Distinguished American Sportsman for his work in developing numerous sporting events in the state of Alabama.