Beginning today, Mark Nolan will lead ESPN’s sales and marketing strategy dedicated to the global expansion of the X Games. Nolan brings extensive experience with global sales, media, sponsorship and marketing to ESPN, having most recently served as Director of Olympic Sales at NBC. While at NBC, Nolan’s team developed sales and marketing strategies for the 2010, 2012 and 2014-20 Olympic Games.

Drawing on those experiences, Nolan will shape ESPN’s sales and marketing strategy for X Games as the franchise will feature six events beginning in 2013. In addition to Los Angeles, Aspen and Tignes, France, three new host cities will be named in the spring of 2012.

Nolan will oversee a number of different tiers of sponsorship opportunities, from major global media partnerships to regional and local levels of sponsorship tailored to events, sports, cultural elements and venues. For specific tiers ESPN will work with partners to create branded content available for multiple distribution outlets, and will also be working with partners to develop creative and innovative intellectual property opportunities on a global scale. He will also work closely with ESPN’s teams and leadership around the world on the local sales component.

This newly created position reflects ESPN’s long-term commitment to global expansion of the X Games, which highlight the world’s best action sports athletes in BMX, Skateboard, Moto X, Rally Car Racing, Skiing, Snowboarding and Snowmobiling. The ESPN X Games global expansion will continue to present world-class action sports competitions, but will also focus on youth cultural and lifestyle elements including music, style, film and photography, creating a variety of touch points to today’s global youth.

Nolan will be based in New York and will report to Eric Johnson, executive vice president of multimedia sales at ESPN.