John Papa

John Papa is the Director of the Sports Management Program in the Barney School of Business.  John graduated from the University of Hartford in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication and received his Masters Degree in Sports Management from the University of Connecticut.  John has extensive experience in the sports industry having spent 25 years at ESPN where he held a number of executive positions touching all areas of the business and through his consulting work where he advises on all areas of the sports media industry. 

At ESPN, John led the cross-platform business strategies, negotiations, scheduling and partner relations for many high profile properties including the NBA, Major League Baseball, the Masters, Wimbledon, US Open, Australian Open, PGA Championship, PGA Tour, Formula One, UFC and Top Rank Boxing.  Earlier in his career, John oversaw ESPN’s program scheduling and content strategy efforts across all linear television networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, ESPNEWS, ESPN Classic) and streaming platforms.  John also had oversight of ESPN’s on-air management, content rights management and formatting operational organizations.  John started his career at ESPN working in the International Department after interning there while a junior at the University of Hartford.