Longtime ESPN communications chief Chris LaPlaca will retire at the end of the year after spending more than 43 years at the company. ESPN Chair Jimmy Pitaro announced the news of LaPlaca’s impending departure earlier today in a memo sent to ESPN’s staff. LaPlaca, the company’s SVP/corporate communications, is the longest tenured behind-the-scenes employee currently at ESPN, having started there in July 1980 — only nine months after the channel first went on the air.
ESPN has re-set its senior executive team in the wake of Connor Schell’s exit and Jodi Markley’s retirement. (Oh yeah, and those 500 cut jobs last week.)
