Michael Spirito Director, Business Development, YES Network

Michael Spirito joined the YES Network in August 2006 as director of business development, reporting to YES COO Ray Hopkins.  Spirito’s responsibilities include identifying new revenue opportunities, and formulating and executing against the company’s overall business strategy.  

Spirito is a June 2006 graduate of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.   While a student at Stanford, he spent time at YES as special assistant to Hopkins and Tracy Dolgin, YES Network president and CEO.

Prior to entering Stanford in 2004, Spirito was a founding member and senior manager of AOL Time Warner Ventures, the early-stage private investment vehicle for the world’s largest media company.   During his time at AOL Time Warner Ventures from 2000-2004, he worked across all of the company’s divisions – including AOL, HBO, Warner Bros., Time Inc. and Time Warner Cable -- to identify investment opportunities.

From 1998 to 2000, Spirito was an investment banking analyst in the media and telecommunications group at Credit Suisse First Boston Corporation in New York.    While there, he undertook merger and acquisition and capital-raising assignments, and provided strategic advice to clients in the media and telecommunications industries.

Spirito graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in Economics.