With a career spanning over 30 years and credits that include FIFA World Cup, Winter & Summer X Games, SportsCenter, seasonal sports packages for the NBA, College Football and NFL Monday Night Football, Claude Mitchell has set himself apart as a leader in the innovative use of music in sports production. 

Combining sports, music and business savvy, Mitchell leads the Music Department as Coordinating Director, Music at ESPN, the worldwide leader in sports.  Mitchell and his team are key players in defining the sound of the network.  ESPN relies on Mitchell and his team of thirteen to manage the creation of original music; oversee and negotiate licensing deals with artists like Kendrick Lamar, H.E.R, Chris Stapleton, Snoop Dogg, Imagine Dragons, J Cole, Thirty Seconds to Mars and U2, coordinate placements for artists in content & events across all of ESPN’s media platforms. 

Mitchell’s background was in mainly in Music Publishing, with ten plus years in Creative/A&R at major publishers.  The majority of that time was as Creative Director for those companies, signing songwriters to the company and developing their careers.  Before joining ESPN, he made a quick foray into the digital music space working as Director of Partner Marketing at MP3.com, where he managed high profile, strategic music partnerships for the website.