• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, January 3, 2012

Brewing giant Anheuser-Busch has tapped Blaise D’Sylva to oversee its U.S. media, sports and entertainment marketing division as vice president, the company confirmed late Tuesday.

The 20-year media and marketing professional joins the brewer, now a unit of Anheuser-Busch InBev, from sports network ESPN, where he was senior director, sales manager, based in Chicago.

D’Sylva replaces Mark Wright, who left A-B last June to join AT&T.

At A-B, D’Sylva will report to Paul Chibe, vice president of U.S. marketing. Commenting on the hire, Chibe stated that D'Sylva brought "strategic, analytical and entrepreneurial qualities needed to expand the capabilities of Anheuser-Busch in today's media landscape.”

D'Sylva will manage a team at A-B responsible for the planning, negotiating and activation of Anheuser-Busch's major investments in national, local and digital media, as well as sports marketing properties, such as the National Football League. This season marked the first year of a new $1.2 billion sponsorship deal for A-B’s Bud Light brand with the NFL. As part of that agreement, Bud Light replaced Coors as the official beer sponsor of the NFL.

The beer marketer also has sponsorship agreements in place with Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association, among others.

At ESPN, D'Sylva was responsible for generating advertising sales revenue for multiple platforms -- including television, digital, print and audio -- across the Midwest region, as well as overseeing the development of branded content and programming. 

Earlier, D’Sylva served as director of media Integration for Allstate Insurance Company. Prior to that, he spent nine years at Starcom MediaVest Group, where he held various positions culminating in his appointment as senior vice president and chief executive of the global media network’s Northeast Asia region.