WISE Announces Winners for 11th Annual Woman of the Year Award
Former AWSM president Brennan honored

New York City, May 19, 2005 -- Women in Sports and Events (WISE) announced today the honorees for the 11th Annual WISE Women of the Year Award Luncheon to be held in New York City on June 7. The recipients are Christine Brennan, sports columnist, USA Today; Christine Driessen, executive VP and chief financial officer, ESPN, Inc. and Jo Ann Ross, president network sales, CBS.

“We are honored and delighted to recognize these elite women in the sports business,” said Sue Rodin, President and Founder of WISE. “They have made incredible contributions to their organizations and are widely regarded as role models for the next generation of young women entering the industry.”

The honorees are chosen by the WISE membership based on the highest number of votes received. Criteria for the honorees includes leadership in their field, serving as role models to other women in industry, and general professionalism and performance on and off the field that have significantly affected the business of sports.

Christine Brennan
Brennan's column in USA Today makes her the most widely read female sports columnist in the nation. She joined USA Today in 1997 and also serves as a television sports analyst and on-air commentator for ABC News and ESPN. She reported from the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Sydney and Athens and the Olympic Winter Games in Nagano and Salt Lake City. Over the past 12 years she has appeared on a variety of network and cable shows. She is the best-selling author of figure skating books Inside Edge and Edge of Glory.

Christine Driessen
Driessen oversees all of ESPN’s financial operations and management information systems, and serves as financial advisor on strategic planning for acquisitions, new business ventures and programming initiatives. Her strong business acumen has played an important role in the successful launches of ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPN The Magazine and ESPN’s international joint ventures, as well as the acquisition of ESPN Classic and major programming rights, including the NFL, NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball. Driessen was previously recognized as one of America’s foremost women in media for being a strong, smart, and bold role model for girls, and was named one of the "Top Ten Female Sports Executives of the Year" by Sports Business Journal.

Jo Ann Ross
Ross joined CBS in 1992 as Vice President of Olympic Sales where she spearheaded the Network’s record-breaking sales efforts for the Olympic Winter Games in 1992 from Albertville, France and 1994 from Lillehammer, Norway, as well as 1998 from Nagano, Japan. As president of Network Sales for CBS since October 2002, she also has presided over record sales for CBS’s broadcast of Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004 – the most-watched Super Bowl in broadcasting history – followed by the launch of Survivor: All-Stars – making it the biggest money-generating day in the history of television at the time.

WISE is the leading voice and resource for professional women in the sports and events industry. Headquartered in New York City, WISE was founded in 1993 and currently has over 500 members in seven chapters across the country in Atlanta, Bay Area, Boston, Charlotte, Cleveland, Detroit and Washington D.C.

The 11th Annual WISE Women of the Year Luncheon will take place on June 7 in New York City at the Marriott Marquis. For more information on the honorees or to purchase sponsorships and/or tickets for the luncheon, please visit the web site at www.WISEworks.org.