BILL RASMUSSEN is the founder of ESPN, the world’s first 24-hour, 7-days-a-week sports television network.

He is a legend in innovative and entrepreneurial sports, advertising, and broadcasting. He is recognized in Sports Business Journal as one of the 100 people who greatly influenced the NFL business. Sports Illustrated honored him as one of their Forty For the Ages. USA Today called him “The Father of Cable Sports.”

Born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Mr. Rasmussen is a veteran of the United States Air Force. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from DePauw University and an MBA from Rutgers University. During his career, he was a television sportscaster and a radio and television play-by-play announcer for baseball, football, basketball, and hockey.

Mr. Rasmussen is the author of Sports Junkies Rejoice! The Birth of ESPN. A frequent guest on television, radio and podcasts, he is in demand as a speaker at corporate events and on campus. He is an Awareness Ambassador at the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and speaks about Intentional Optimism at American Parkinson Disease Association events across the country.

Donald T. Phillips is the author of Lincoln On Leadership. He has collaborated on books with Mike Krzyzewski, Cal Ripken, Phil Mickelson, and George Bodenheimer. He grew up in the Washington, D.C. area.