Laurie Orlando
Laurie Orlando joined CBS News as senior vice president for talent strategy in January 2016. She oversees recruiting and development of and long term planning for on-air talent for all CBS News shows, including “CBS This Morning,” “CBS Evening News,” “48 Hours,” “CBS Sunday Morning,” “Face the Nation” and “60 Minutes”. Orlando works closely with the digital and interactive groups who produce CBSN, the company’s 24-hour news service, as well as with the owned and operated affiliates throughout the country.
Prior to joining CBS News, Orlando was senior vice president for talent development and planning at ESPN since 2008. She was responsible for ESPN’s Talent Office and relationships with the on-air personalities who represent the ESPN brand across all multimedia platforms. It was the second ESPN stint for Orlando, who worked for ESPN Classic as a coordinating producer in 1999. In her earlier role, she oversaw the development, supervision and execution of all original, documentary and long-form programming.
Prior to that, Orlando served as the senior vice president and executive producer for MSG and Fox Sports New York (Sept. 2006-Dec. 2007), and spent nearly five years (Nov. 2002- Aug. 2006) at College Sports Television (CSTV, now CBS Sports Network) as vice president of programming, original programming and development and vice president of remote and feature production.
Orlando has held significant production and programming roles at multiple networks during her career, and has developed a reputation throughout the industry as a creative executive who thrives on the challenge of building networks from their inception, having played an integral role in start-up teams that launched five networks — The Comedy Channel (1989), Classic Sports Network (1994), Oxygen Media (1999), CSTV (2003), and The Mtn (2006), all of which remain on the air in some form.
Orlando has exhibited a passion for sports throughout her professional career, beginning with her early experience as a freelance producer for Showtime’s Championship Boxing coverage (Jan. 1991-July 1996). She joined Classic Sports Network in 1996 as a coordinating producer responsible for development and execution of the network’s boxing programming and original programming, and she also supervised original studio production for all sports genres.
A native of Scotia, N.Y., Orlando graduated from Syracuse University with a bachelor of science degree in international relations, with minors in Russian studies and foreign policy, as well as a bachelor of arts in television and film writing from the Newhouse School of Public Communications. She began her career in television in 1980, serving as a news intern with WRGB-TV in Albany. In 1986, she interned on “Late Night With David Letterman” before moving into positions with Showtime and HBO’s Comedy Channel.
Orlando is an alumni advisor for students at Newhouse; a member of the Advisory Board for Own the Room, an Improv & Presentation Training Company; and is a member of Women in Cable Television (WICT); and Women in Sports and Events (WISE).