Sassa made the transition into his current position after working with his predecessor, Don Ohlmeyer, and serving as president of NBC Entertainment since October 1998. During this time, he oversaw the development and production of NBC’s new primetime series for the 1999-2000 season, including such shows as The West Wing, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Third Watch, three of the season’s highest-rated and most critically acclaimed freshman series.

Sassa joined NBC in September 1997 as president of the NBC Television Stations division. In this position, he was responsible for overseeing the operation of NBC’s 13 owned-and-operated television stations.

Before joining NBC, Sassa had been president and chief operating officer of Andrews Group, a unit of MacAndrews & Forbes Holding, and the chief executive officer of Marvel Entertainment. Before that, he spent nine years at Turner Broadcasting System, finishing his tenure there as president of Turner Entertainment Group and a member of the Turner board of directors and the TBS Executive Committee.

Sassa is widely credited with building Turner’s entertainment cable channels into industry leaders, launching seven networks over a seven-year period. From 1992 to 1996, he was responsible for all operations and programming for the TBS Superstation, Turner Network Television, Cartoon Network, Turner Classic Movies and Turner’s international entertainment networks in Europe, Asia and Latin America. He was also responsible for Turner Home Video, Turner Licensing and Merchandising, Turner Publishing, Turner New Media, Turner Original Productions, Hanna-Barbera Cartoons Inc. and Turner Pictures. Sassa was named executive vice president of Turner Network Television in 1988, where he was instrumental in the network’s launch, the largest at that time.

Earlier in his career, Sassa was vice president of New Business Development at Ohlmeyer Communications Co., which was then headed by Don Ohlmeyer. He also served as vice president of Network Management for Fox Broadcasting Co. Sassa was the first person hired by Fox and he developed the network’s initial business plan, and ran its advertising, promotions, operations and administration departments.

Sassa originally joined Turner Broadcasting in 1982, first as director of sales promotion and soon becoming vice president/general manager of the company’s Cable Music Channel. He began his career with Rogers & Cowan Public Relations Agency.

Sassa grew up in Torrance, California.

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