Mike Connolly To Lead SiriusXM Sales

Mike Connolly

SiriusXM announced Monday that veteran media executive Mike Connolly has joined the company as its new head of advertising sales.  Connolly will oversee SiriusXM's ad sales efforts across its wide-ranging lineup of channels that take advertising, which includes entertainment, news, comedy and sports.

He will report to Scott Greenstein, SiriusXM's President and Chief Content Officer.

Connolly, 57, comes to SiriusXM from ESPN, where for the last eight years he had been Vice President of Advertising Sales and Affiliate Sales for ESPN Audio Network, leading efforts to generate ad revenue through ESPN's array of audio content across all its national platforms as well as overseeing station relations for its 500+ affiliates. He brings broad experience working with varied on-air audio content in his three decades in media sales. Prior to joining ESPN he served as Senior Vice President of Ad Sales for both Citadel Communications and ABC Radio Networks.

"I've been a longtime listener of SiriusXM content and have always been a huge fan," said Connolly. "A vast majority of my career has been in radio sales so the opportunity to lead the sales effort at SiriusXM is a dream come true."

"Mike is a proven ad industry executive and we are excited to have him lead SiriusXM's ad sales team and continue its strong sustained growth," said Greenstein. "Mike's extensive experience in audio entertainment will be of crucial importance to SiriusXM as our programming depth and variety expand and the national audience of subscribers and listeners continues to rise."

Connolly succeeds Bette Rockmore as the head of SiriusXM's ad sales team. Rockmore, who has run SiriusXM's ad sales efforts since 2009, is moving into a teaching role at Pace University. During Rockmore's tenure, SiriusXM has seen remarkable ad sales growth, with a double-digit percentage increase in total ad sales revenue year over year for six of the last seven years. Rockmore will assist in the transition and continue to work with SiriusXM as a consultant.