By Betsy Vereckey

Freddy Rolón T’04 has loved sports ever since he was a kid growing up in the Bronx. He grew up five blocks from Yankee Stadium and knew whether it was a good matchup by how many people were hanging out in the neighborhood and how long the deli line was.

“I had a deal with my parents that if I finished my homework on time, I could go watch the game in the bleachers, which was a lot cheaper back then,” says Rolón, who has long admired Latino players like Bernie Williams and Mariano Rivera. “Seeing the diversity on the field gave me a sense that I could be part of the sports world.”

As head of ESPN’s Global Sports & Talent Office, Rolón manages the network’s global editorial and production teams and is responsible for making sure that ESPN is attracting talent that is reflective of ESPN’s diverse audience.

“Whether that’s bilingual reporters who speak Mandarin to help us cover the NBA in China or who speak Spanish and help bridge our coverage between Latin America and the U.S., there are people who we need on our teams—people who have the right skills and perspective to enable us to serve fans better,” Rolón says.

A graduate of Wesleyan University, Rolón landed at ESPN in a full-time role after interning at the network as a student at Tuck. He recalls having many meaningful conversations with associate dean Sally Jaeger, who encouraged him to choose a career that he was truly passionate about. When ESPN executive Russell Wolff D’89, T’94 visited Tuck’s campus, Rolón took the opportunity to make a connection, and his career took off.

Twenty years later, Rolón is still with ESPN and loving it. He’s worked in ESPN Radio and ESPN Deportes and was responsible for ESPN’s scheduling strategy during the pandemic when there were no sports. (ESPN aired Korean baseball and ran sports movies when games got cancelled at the last minute.)

The pandemic also presented Rolón with another challenge: How do you keep employees feeling connected to one another when the newsroom is empty? He encouraged younger employees to speak up during Zoom meetings with ESPN leadership, which turned out to be a great solution. “It gave them an opportunity to come to the table with different ideas,” he says. “We saw a different side of our employees through that process.”

Rolón is also active in mentoring and has served on the boards of Partnership with Children and the National Association for Multiethnicity in Communications. He likens his role to that of a coach who thinks a lot about his team on the field and tries to get the best out of every player. He still remembers the case studies he learned about at Tuck that emphasized the wins that
come from teamwork.

“Organizations are a collection of people executing on a strategy—you can’t do it by yourself,” he says. “Good leaders maximize team effort so that individuals have a better experience and feel more engaged in their work. From a business perspective, you’re always measured on results, but how you get there matters, too.”

This story originally appeared in print in the winter 2025 issue of Tuck Today magazine.