by Hayley Keen

Kevin Lopes ‘05, came to URI as a business major who loved sports, business, and meeting people. He understood business, but his love for connecting with people led him to change his major to communication studies.

During college he was President of the student body for two years, where he ran Student Senate meetings, which allowed him to gain public speaking experience, and, ultimately, improved his GPA. He was also on the track and field team and a member of the Student Alumni Association.

Lopes further understood the value of a communications degree from URI after he set forth to get a job after graduation. His passion for communicating in business and sports led him to ESPN. As a recently promoted director of business development and former senior manager of digital media programming and acquisitions, Kevin has worked on many sides of the development spectrum. He spent 10 years programming, scheduling and planning events. Programming at ESPN consisted of 2 aspects: negotiating and scheduling. This meant he needed to gain acquisitions and schedule when to air them on which of ESPN’s channels and platforms.

“University of Rhode Island helped me,” Lopes said. “I used my background on student senate and within the communications program to expand my knowledge.”

Lopes added that he  is consistently building his presentations and public speaking skills, which he learned and practiced in college in the Harrington School.

In his current position, Lopes works on building and maintaining strategic partnerships and advising corporate strategy. In this position, he instructs ESPN on which investments and acquisitions to make to advance the corporation.

Kevin suggested that students should make the most out of their time at URI.

“People underestimate the opportunity they have to be successful at URI,” Lopes said. “Get involved on campus. Don’t make it a commuter school. You have plenty of years to get involved. The more involved you are the better your lifelong friendships will be, the better your network will be, and more fun you’ll have during your time in Rhode Island.”