Jean Rossi, a top sales executive who has been with Fox Broadcasting Company through its entire history, is leaving at the end of this week after deciding not to renew her expiring contract.
Rossi is executive vice president of sales and president of the 21st Century Fox cross-company integrated sales and marketing group Fox One. She joined Fox twenty-seven years ago as part of the team that originally built the network.
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Rossi helped the network grow through the early days of hits like “The Simpons” and an eigh-year stretch when “American Idol” ruled as television’s top show. Ad Age named her a Media Maven in 2011.
The Fox One group recently announced the the first global deal for the Emmy award-winning “Cosmos.” She also championed selling ads on the basis of their ratings over seven days rather than three. All broadcasters are pushing for such C7 sales, as opposed to C3 sales.
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Rossi joined Fox’s sales department as an account executive in March 1987 and was promoted to director of Eastern sales that October. She became vice president of national sales in 1990. In 1993, she took on additional responsibility for primetime sales, and overseeing regional sales operations, and in 1994 she was promoted to senior vice president of sales.
She became executive vice president of sales in 1996, and in 2002 was named president of Fox One.
Prior to joining Fox, she worked at agencies including Young & Rubicam and BBDO. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communication arts from St. John’s University and currently serves on their Board of Governors.
