NBCUniversal Elevates Linda Yaccarino To Chair Of Global Advertising & Partnerships

Jill Goldsmith
·4 min read

NBCUniversal Monday named Linda Yaccarino chair, Global Advertising and Partnerships, adding data strategy, local and regional sports network sales and cross-company strategic initiatives to her portfolio, along with global and national sales.

She will continue to report directly to Jeff Shell, CEO, NBCUniversal.

Earlier this year, NBCUniversal unified its linear and digital assets as One Platform and introduced ad-supported streaming with Peacock. The new structure announced today is an extension of the One Platform strategy. It allows the company to strengthen its already robust local ad sales operation by tying it more closely to the company’s global sales efforts and provides additional resources to build growing areas like data and information strategy.

“Linda has done a fantastic job moving the advertising business forward, not just for NBCUniversal, but the industry at large,” said Shell, CEO. “I’m excited for her to continue architecting the future of the ad-supported ecosystem and uniting all assets of this company to make us the best possible partner for our customers around the world.”

Since joining NBCUniversal in 2011, Yaccarino has led the growth of the company’s advertising sales efforts both nationally and globally to a $10-plus billion dollar business annually, while developing new opportunities with expanded creative and technological resources to better serve NBCUniversal’s partners.

With the addition of Local Sales, NBCUniversal said it will offer a streamlined, scaled ad solution for small businesses to global enterprises via One Platform. Frank Comerford, Chief Revenue Officer for Local Sales, will continue to oversee all commercial efforts for NBCUniversal’s local TV stations, multicast networks and regional sports networks. He will report to Yaccarino and continue to work closely with Valari Staab, President of NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations.

Yaccarino’s role will also include the oversight of a new initiative and another division. She will lead an effort to create a unified, privacy safe identity vision at NBCUniversal as head of the company’s new Data Strategy unit. This team, under a soon-to-be-named Chief Data Officer, will map out a strategic plan for information development across the organization, driving revenue generation and building deeper pathways into commerce. Strategic Initiatives, led by Senior Vice President Kathy Kelly-Brown, will also join Yaccarino’s team, uniting Comcast Cable and NBCUniversal’s Symphony efforts under the broader Advertising and Partnerships mantle.

Division wide memo from Yaccarino:

Team,

I’m thrilled that our family is getting bigger.

First, we’re welcoming Frank Comerford and his team of local sales experts to make our broader Global Advertising & Partnerships division truly a one-of-a-kind in this industry. This also means we will have the great opportunity to partner even more closely with Valari Staab, the stations, and the Regional Sports Networks under this new structure. On top of that, Kathy Kelly-Brown’s strategic initiatives team will join our team and expand on their incredible work with Symphony, plus we’ll be partnering even more closely with John Miller. Finally, we’re going to build an entirely new Data Strategy unit that will unite all of NBCUniversal behind a shared information vision.

Please join me in welcoming them all!

These updates come at a time of massive transformation in the global advertising industry. Consumer behavior and corporate convergence are bringing media and technology closer together. And now, so are we.

By organizing our business to reflect the realities of the marketplace and the future that audiences have created, we’re able to bolster our One Platform solution and, subsequently, our entire business. Now, from local to global, across cable and broadcast, digital and streaming, NBCUniversal—and only NBCUniversal—can offer audiences and partners an unbeatable combination of deep regional expertise and massive scale, data-driven math and a little bit of magic.

While there is no doubt we are a content and technology company at our core, we need to keep accelerating our business plans to define entertainment and build the future of advertising. With the addition of these strong teams and new initiatives, we’re expanding our offerings for clients while diversifying our business and creating new company-wide opportunities. We’re making the right investments to bring that future into focus.

During Wednesday’s Office Hours, I’ll go into more details and introduce our new team members. But for now, it’s important to reiterate: when we transform our team, we transform the company—and the entire industry.

Thank you,

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