Tina Thornton

As Executive Vice President, Creative Studio and Marketing at ESPN, Tina Thornton is a key member of ESPN’s executive leadership team reporting to ESPN Chairman, Jimmy Pitaro.

In her current role, Tina is responsible for leading all of ESPN’s marketing efforts – overseeing all creative output for ESPN Marketing, overall media strategy, spending and budgeting, and fan engagement – across brands, events, platforms, and shows.  

In addition, Thornton has oversight of ESPN’s Creative Studio and Corporate Citizenship teams.  Creative Studio is an award-winning centralized creative team that brings together groups from across ESPN as storytellers through design, animation, edit, music, creative production, visual journalism, photography, multi-platform commercial campaigns and branded content. The CSR team implements programs for social good through employee volunteerism, charitable giving, and cause marketing programs. 

Thornton joined ESPN in 1993, right out of college, as a production assistant. Her decorated 30-year plus career at ESPN has included roles such as chief of staff to Pitaro, head of ESPN’s production operations team, oversight of ESPN’s directing team and leadership of ESPN Next, a dynamic career development program for employees across ESPN’s content division and The Walt Disney Company.  Additionally, for more than a decade, she led the production of ESPN’s NCAA Championships coverage, overseeing 24 events including the women’s basketball tournament & Final Four (for 16 years), wrestling, lacrosse, and the Women’s College World Series.

A Cincinnati native, Thornton graduated from Wake Forest University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications in 1993. Beyond several career accolades, Tina is passionate about shaping positive youth sports experiences. She dedicated nine years to coaching girls’ youth lacrosse in her community and served as president of her daughter’s high school athletic booster club for 2 years, helping student‑athletes and families feel supported and connected.