Rick Alessandri Joins WPLL As Strategic Advisor

PENNINGTON, NJ (January 8, 2019) - The Women’s Professional Lacrosse League (WPLL) is thrilled to welcome long-time sports media executive Rick Alessandri to the WPLL. Alessandri, who has spent 35 years working at companies including Disney/ ESPN, Univision, Dow Jones, SportsTicker, and Turnkey Search, joins the WPLL team as a strategic advisor and equity investor.

“We are thrilled to have Rick join our staff as he brings an enormous amount of experience to our league. He is creative and thoughtful about what we are building and has a vision to help us achieve our goals,” says Michele DeJuliis, founder of the WPLL.

Alessandri brings unparalleled expertise and experience to the WPLL. During his 20-year tenure at Disney/ESPN Alessandri served as Chief of Staff to ESPN President George Bodenheimer. Alessandri also served as Senior Vice President of ESPN Enterprises and the CXO of the X Games. All of Alessandri’s positions at Disney/ESPN served a common goal: creating a seamless media and non-media experience that was engaging, consistent and monetizable.

In his recent role with Univision, Rick served as Executive Vice President, Univision Enterprises where he was responsible for developing new business opportunities to better serve Hispanic America. At Univision, Alessandri was the driving force in creating the Prospects Cup, a U-12 boys soccer tournament that featured some of the top teams from across the world. The event was recognized by Cynopsis Sports Media Awards as the “Event of the Year for a Breakthrough Sport”. Every match of the five-day tournament was streamed live through Univision’s Spanish and English speaking platforms. Under Alessandri’s, leadership the Prospects Cup earned over 20 million video views on social media, 125 million social media impressions, 5.3 million live stream views, and 1.2 million television viewers.

“I was fortunate to be introduced to DJ (Michele DeJuliis) and the leadership at the WPLL and immediately recognized the incredible mission they were on and I wanted to become a part of it”, said Alessandri. “The vision and passion of the WPLL coupled with its amazing athletes and role models positions this league for incredible growth with fans, sponsors and partners”, added Alessandri. 

With Alessandri’s support and guidance the WPLL plans to continue providing its professional and Futures athletes with incredible lacrosse experiences, helping them become stronger on the field while creating even stronger connections throughout the lacrosse community. Alessandri’s presence will help the league continue to move forward and connect with sponsors and supporters, helping the league and the entire women’s lacrosse community grow.

Stay tuned for the WPLL’s second season during the summer of 2019. The world’s most competitive women’s lacrosse league, the WPLL features 5 teams, the Baltimore Brave, the New England Command, the New York Fight, the Philadelphia Fire, and the Upstate Pride. Follow @prowomenslax on social media for all WPLL updates.