Over a versatile career, Lee Ann Daly, BA'85, has made significant contributions to the fields of media, marketing, and innovation. As a C-suite executive at ESPN, Thomson Reuters, startups, TechStars, and private equity-backed companies, Daly has helped transform the way global audiences engage with storytelling and technology.
Her path began at IU, where she was an ad sales leader at the Indiana Daily Student, a jazz DJ at WIUS student radio (now WIUX), and a designer of posters for concerts and speaker series at Indiana Memorial Union Board. These early creative roles and the lasting influence of faculty, especially professor Philip Ward Burton, ignited her passion for media, gave her courage, and shaped her bold, human-centered leadership style.
Daly’s leadership in media is both expansive and award-winning. During her nine-year tenure at ESPN, she led global brand and marketing during a period of rapid growth launching numerous platform extensions – including XGames, ESPN U, digital ESPN, ESPN The Magazine, ESPN Films, ESPN consumer products, The ESPN Zone, and ESPN games.
She green-lit iconic ad campaigns including “This Is SportsCenter,” the Cannes Lions Gold Award-winning “Without Sports…” campaign, documentary films that functioned as TV spots, and game shows that marketed interactive media and collaborations with artists, including Spike Lee and Wil.i.am, and sports luminaries like Peyton Manning and Kobe Bryant.
Daly joined Reuters in early 2007 as executive vice president and chief marketing officer, where she led brand development and global marketing. At the merger of Thomson and Reuters, she spearheaded re-branding the combined companies and launched the Eikon, a global financial platform, leading an international go-to-market launch in six languages across 120 countries.
Today, Daly applies her expertise to rebuilding her own wildfire-impacted community of Pacific Palisades, California, by creating tools and events that support community social-emotional wellbeing. A recent graduate of USC’s Iovine and Young Academy’s Master of Science program, she continues to lead with curiosity, empathy, and clarity of purpose.
Beyond corporate leadership, Daly is recognized for her industry influence–as an alumni fellow of the Kelley School of Business, an inductee to the American Advertising Federation Hall of Achievement, and a Top Sports Business Executive by Sports Business Journal. Daly’s work has earned accolades including Cannes Lions, Clio, ProMax BDA, and Effie Awards. She was president of the board of directors for the American Marketing Association in New York and has served on the board of directors of the EO Wilson Biodiversity Foundation.