Great Lakes Bass Fishing Forum

(from www.bassfan.com)

ESPNO/BASS shakeup 6/19/2006
BASS has been owned by ESPN since April 2001, a little over 5 years. In that time ESPN Outdoors and BASS have had somewhat of a revolving door of top management ? not uncommon with big companies like ESPN.

The latest change in the BASS/ESPN Outdoors corporate structure involves now-former ESPN Outdoors VP and GM Christine Godleski, who has left the company. She was the top dog at ESPN Outdoors/BASS, but according to an ESPN internal email is "leaving ESPN Outdoors to pursue other business opportunities."

Steve Anderson will assume responsibility for BASS and ESPN Outdoors. Anderson is currently ESPN's executive VP of production and technical operations, and apparently is one of the top five or six people in the ESPN corporate structure.

According to the memo, Anderson will be responsible for conducting "a thorough review of all outdoors operations with the goal of continuing to enhance our overall performance."

BASS VP and GM Don Rucks will report directly to Anderson.

BassFan is currently waiting for comment from BASS.

Note that BASS VP of operations, and former GM, Dean Kessel left the company last month.

And Godleski's former boss, Mark Quenzel, a senior VP of programming and production at ESPN and the highest-ranking ESPN executive responsible for ESPN Outdoors and BASS, left ESPN in November 2005 for "personal reasons," he said at the time.

Quenzel was a central figure in the decision of ESPN to purchase BASS, and in December 2005 landed at Six Flags Inc., hired by his former boss at ESPN, Mark Shapiro.