By Garrison McDaniel

Peter Tortorici is a former CEO, president, and executive producer, but most importantly, he is an Ohio State graduate returning to his roots to help the Sports and Society Initiative.

As SSI’s new board chairman, Tortorici brings his experience as the former head of CBS Entertainment, along with valuable opportunities and relationships for students.

“I've touched sports from a lot of different angles,” Tortorici said. “I've been involved at every touchpoint in the relationship between sport and media in one way or another.”

Tortorici said he plans to use the expertise he’s built over his long career to offer students insight into the sports media industry.

“I have some level of experience and relationships that can hopefully help students understand what the opportunities are and give them a deeper understanding of how it all works,” he said.

Tortorici has been in the media industry since the early 1980s, starting as vice president of programming at CBS Sports before becoming president of CBS Entertainment in 1994.

During his time at CBS Sports, Tortorici learned how sports can help individuals grow, a lesson that fuels his desire to support students through SSI.

“There were things that sports taught me that I thought were really valuable lessons,” Tortorici said. “What it meant to be a human being, what it meant to be a more fully formed person.”

Toward the end of his professional career, Tortorici served as a senior strategic advisor at WPP & GroupM, where he worked with the National Olympic Committee as a client.

“That was a dream fulfilled for me because, when I first started my career in sports and media, the big white whale we wanted to catch was the rights to the Olympic Games,” Tortorici said. “What was so powerful to me about that experience was the connection to the Olympic mission, which is to create a better world through sport.”

Tortorici said he is passionate about creating an environment that helps students grow through sports and believes SSI is the ideal platform to do so.

“We want to create a utility for young people who love sports, want to participate in sports, and believe that through their involvement, they can become better people and make an impact in the world,” Tortorici said.

He was drawn to SSI because its core values align with his own.

“[SSI] is working to show the connection between what sports is and what it can do for society in ways that benefit both,” he said. “I thought it was righteous work and a great mission.”

In addition to supporting students, Tortorici said he plans to leverage his connections with advertisers and potential marketing partners to help the initiative grow.

“I can help provide greater guidance to the overall program in ways that could help endow it,” he said. “To give it some level of financial support that might enable it to do more than it’s currently able to do on a fairly hand-to-mouth basis.”

Lastly, Tortorici said he wants to be a resource for students interested in sports media careers.

“I want to make myself available as a resource to students who are really interested in pursuing careers in sports,” he said.