Mark Shapiro (media executive)

Mark Shapiro (born circa 1970) is an American television and media executive. He served as Executive Vice President for Programming and Production at ESPN until 2005, when he became CEO and President of Six Flags, Inc. Following his tenure at Six Flags, Shapiro served as CEO and Executive Producer of Dick Clark Productions. He is currently the Chief Content Officer for IMG.

Shapiro attended Glenbrook High School in Glenview, Illinois and the University of Iowa, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1992. He was a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity and would later be named a Significant Sig by the organization. Out of college he began working at NBC in its sports department on the US west coast. In November 1993 he left to work at ESPN as a production assistant for Talk2 with Jim Rome on ESPN2.

He became a producer at the network within six months. At 26, Shapiro was put in charge of a multimedia project intended to chronicle sports in the 20th Century called SportsCentury. The documentary turned out to be the most extensive in ESPN's history. Between 1997 and 1999 Shapiro served as executive producer of the series, which was awarded a Peabody Award as well as an Excellence in Sports Journalism Award from the Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Sport in Society. During this time he was promoted to Vice President and general manager at ESPN Classic and ESPN Original Entertainment.

Shapiro became senior vice president and general manager of programming in 2001 and then executive vice president for programming and production in 2002. This position put Shapiro in charge of all programming for ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPNRadio and ESPN's international networks, in addition to ESPN Classic. During his tenure as an executive at ESPN Shapiro spearheaded shows like Pardon the Interruption, Around the Horn, and Cheap Seats in addition to original films, dramatic television, and reality television shows. By 2003 he was named by Entertainment Weekly as being one of 2003's rising stars in entertainment.

Shapiro also expanded the World Series of Poker's profile on the network as well as the air time for Outside the Lines. Outside the Lines was moved from a weekend slot to a nightly programming slot, changing the name of the show to Outside the Lines Nightly. The move was the idea of Shapiro and host Bob Ley, increasing the ratings of the show by 39%. The Chicago Tribune reported that these kinds of programming moves helped to boost the overall ratings for the network as well. Between 2002 and 2003, ratings on ESPN rose by 11%, and original programming made up 6% of the network's total air-time.

While at ESPN Shapiro was behind new television deals struck with several major sports organizations, including the NFL, NASCAR, Major League Baseball, the NHL, NBA, Wimbledon, the World Cup of Soccer, IndyCar, the Big Ten, the ACC, NCAA, MLS, the French Open, and the Australian Open. This included bringing Monday Night Football from its original home at ABC to ESPN. He was the executive producer for television shows including Tilt, Dream Job, Timeless, Around the Horn, Pardon the Interruption, and Playmakers. Playmakers was awarded a 2003 American Film Institute award for TV Program of the Year, and the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 2004. Shapiro was also the executive producer of the television films Hustle, The Junction Boys, A Season on the Brink, and Dick Schaap: Flashing Before my Eyes.

During his tenure the network was awarded 16 Emmy awards and an additional Peabody. He personally was nominated for four Sports Emmy Awards, including two separate nominations in the Outstanding Sports Documentary category in 2003, for The Complete Angler and The Best of Leifer. In 2005 he won the award for Outstanding Short Feature, for the series Timeless. In 2006 he was then nominated for the same series in the category of Outstanding Edited Sports Series/Anthologies. He was also the recipient of the UJA-Federation of New York 2005 Sports for Youth Award and in 2006 he was again honored by the federation in the Broadcast Cable category. Shapiro was named to the Sports Business Daily 40 under 40 Hall of Fame in 2005 after being named to the list in 2002, 2003, and 2004.

Shapiro retired from his position of Executive Vice President, Programming and Production at ESPN in May 2005. After his departure he was called "one of the most powerful execs in ESPN history" and a "programming prodigy". From October to December 2005, Shapiro served as chief executive officer at Red Zone LLC, as the company pushed for control over Six Flags, Inc. Once Red Zone solidified control over the company, Shapiro became Director, President and chief executive officer of Six Flags, with a tenure lasting from August 2005 until May 2010. His tenure there was marked by a decision to market the theme parks to children and families instead of building more intense rides targeting the teenagers and young adults the park had attracted in the past. He received a $10 million signing bonus for taking the position.

Part of Shapiro's changes to the brand included altering park rules to dissuade loitering and other annoyances for family patrons. The parks were made smoke-free, and Shapiro formed partnerships between the company and other brands like Papa John's and Home Depot. Shapiro also criticized the so-called "arms race of roller coasters", whereby different theme park companies attempted to one-up each other in the development of larger more intense roller coasters. The New York Times wrote that:

[Shapiro] ordered more costumed characters like Tweety and Sylvester the Cat to roam parks and installed bathroom attendants. And to attract families, and ward off troublemaking teenagers that roamed the parks, the company banned smoking, tripled security and instituted a code-of-conduct policy. In 2006 and 2007, years in which the company lost money, Mr. Shapiro spent more than $100 million to clean up the parks. The efforts paid off in 2008, when revenue rose 5 percent, to $1 billion, and its operating income jumped threefold, to $144 million.

Shapiro also began to expand the company's properties internationally, entering discussions to open new parks in Qatar, India, China, South Korea, Dubai, and Panama. The state of business at Six Flags that Shapiro inherited was noted at the time as very poor, something that required a long-term strategy to recover from. During the final year of his tenure the company entered bankruptcy, with Shapiro guiding the company back out of bankruptcy protection by the end of his tenure. Shapiro and the new ownership team had inherited a $2.4 billion debt load that he claimed was unsustainable before the bankruptcy.

Shapiro became chief executive officer and an Executive Producer of Dick Clark Productions (DCP) in May 2010. While there, Shapiro was involved with the expansion of the company's programming format. Shapiro left the position of CEO soon after the sale of the company to Guggenheim Partners in 2012, having signalled that he would do as such before the deal closed. The company was sold for approximately twice the amount it had been originally purchased for in 2007 when Shapiro came on board. While at DCP Shapiro was an executive producer of television broadcasts including the Golden Globes, So You Think You Can Dance, the American Music Awards, and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve. He has continued on in the position of an executive producer for the company. Following his departure from the CEO position, Shapiro was also covered by the press as a front-runner for the top executive position at CNN.

In 2014 Shapiro became the Chief Content Officer for IMG, after working as an advisor for William Morris Endeavor.

Shapiro is the long-time Chairman of the Red Zebra Broadcasting radio consortium. He also became a consultant for the NFL Network in July 2010. He has served as a board member for Tribune Co. (2008–12), Live Nation and Papa John's. He is also a trustee of Equity Residential, a director of Frontier Communications Corp, and was a member of the advisory board of NeuMedia, Inc. He was also an executive producer for the 2008 feature film Valkyrie. In 2013 Shapiro was named Chairman of Captivate Network.