Linda Yaccarino Now Chairman of NBCU Global Advertising, Partnerships

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Linda Yaccarino Promoted to Chairman of NBCU Global Advertising and Partnerships

Longtime sales exec now in charge of data strategy and local and regional sports network sales

NBCUniversal has promoted Linda Yaccarino to chairman of global advertising and partnerships.

Yaccarino will add local advertising sales and data strategy to her purview, along with continuing to oversee national advertising sales, ad sales marketing, and global partnerships. Earlier this year, NBCU unified its linear and digital assets as One Platform, which coincided with the launch of its ad-supported streaming service Peacock. Today’s move was the next part of that plan, NBCU says.

Under Yaccarino, NBCU will launch a new data strategy unit, which will be led by a soon-to-be-named chief data officer. 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.

“Linda has done a fantastic job moving the advertising business forward, not just for NBCUniversal, but the industry at large,” said Jeff Shell, CEO, NBCUniversal. “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.”

Yaccarino has been with NBCU since 2011 and has led the company’s ad sales since 2012.

You can read a division-wide memo sent by Yaccarino this morning:

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.