Tulane University has had many successful graduates. Andrew Messina, senior vice president of Advertising Sales at The Walt Disney Company, is no exception to this fact. 

Originally from New York, Messina graduated from Tulane in 1989. He studied American history and business and joined the Sigma Chi fraternity, where he met lifelong friends. He also met his wife, Stacy, at Tulane. 

After Tulane, Messina thought he would go to law school like his father, but had a change of heart while backpacking in Europe for four months after graduation. He sent his resume around to a bunch of advertising agencies and eventually received a job offer by a stroke of luck. 

“The woman who hired me, her boyfriend, had graduated from Tulane,” Messina said. “He said to her, ‘Oh, you should look at this guy, because he went to Tulane and she ended up hiring me.’” After his first step into the advertising industry, Messina went on to work at the McCann Worldgroup advertising agency and eventually, the American Broadcasting Company. 

Messina worked for 20 years at ABC. He spent time as a manager for daytime television, manager for prime-time television and later worked in sales for all television programming. 

Now at Disney, Messina is responsible for some of the major sponsors on Disney television broadcasts, including ESPN’s partnerships with Ram Trucks, Mercedes-Benz, Chick-fil-A and Goodyear Tires. Monday Night Football’s pregame kick-off show sponsored by Jersey Mike’s Subs is another sponsorship that Messina spearheaded. 

In addition to football, “what my team sells here at Disney advertising sales is ABC, ESPN, Freeform of Disney Channel, FX, NatGeo and Hulu,” Messina said. “So we combined seven different sales forces into one.” 

With everything that the Disney properties have to offer, advertising is a huge source of revenue and brings in around $7 billion a year. 

“We’re always on, basically,” Messina said of managing advertising. 

Messina said the most valuable part of attending Tulane University was the connections he made during his time. 

“Never underestimate the power of networking,” Messina said. He emphasized the importance of making connections in classes, at social events and with alumni. 

“When I meet with recent graduates from Tulane, and they are really appreciative of my time, I want to help them more,” Messina said. 

Messina has shown that learning from his mistakes and working hard everyday has propelled him into a highly esteemed career at Disney.

“You have got to be able to put in the work. And you also have to be prepared to fail,” Messina said.