An industry veteran with more than two decades of experience at ESPN, Nick Rud is currently serving as Vice President of Sports Production for Diamond and College Olympic Sports. Rud was promoted into this role in Aug. 2025 after previously serving as Coordinating Producer.

Rud is responsible for the creative development and production oversight of multiple sports categories, including Diamond Sports (college softball, college baseball, girls’ little league softball and boys’ little league baseball) and College Olympic Sports (field hockey, men’s and women’s soccer, and wrestling). In this role, Rud oversees the overall content strategy for these properties includes ESPN’s annual presentation of marquee NCAA Championship events, including the Women’s and Men’s College World Series, and the Little League World Series tournaments in Williamsport, Pa.

In his Coordinating Producer role, which he was named in May 2022, Rud oversaw ESPN’s ever-expanding college softball and wrestling coverage, including the most-viewed Women’s College World Series in history. His creative vision has resulted in enhancements like the popular ‘Matcast’ and ‘7Innings Live’ second-screen experiences. Rud was also part of ESPN’s college football production leadership team, which was honored with the 2025 Sports Emmy in the prestigious Live Series category.

A Maple Lake, Minn., native and proud Nebraska alum, Rud has steadily advanced throughout ESPN’s production ranks over the past two decades. Before his promotion to CP in 2022, Rud was a senior managing producer (2018-22) and event producer (2014-18). He originally joined ESPN as a production assistant in September 2004 and was elevated on multiple occasions – graphics manager, senior associate producer, etc. – before moving onto his producer roles.