Krishan Bhatia, Josh Feldman and Tom Winiarski, top executives at NBCUniversal’s advertising sales and partnerships division, have been promoted to expanded roles.
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Bhatia has been named president and chief business officer, a new role at the company, a subsidiary of Comcast.
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Feldman has been promoted to be the division’s first chief marketing officer.
Winiarski was appointed president, platform monetization.
All three executives will continue to report to Linda Yaccarino, chairman, global advertising and partnerships.
“These three promotions reflect a renewed mandate for us to become the best possible partners in every single area we operate,” Yaccarino said in a staff memo.
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In addition to leading the strategy, partnerships, product, technology, measurement and operations functions for NBCU’s One Platform approach, Bhatia will oversee and have budget responsibility for digital and advanced advertising sales and account services. He will also play a key role in building NBCU’s new data and identity platform.
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Bhatia, who had been executive VP, business operations & strategy for the ad sales division, joined NBCU in 2011 from Comcast, where he’d been since 2005.
Feldman will continue to head NBCU’s creative partnerships team and will add trade marketing to his group, unifying all marketing, creative production and commerce efforts within creative partnerships. He is responsible for NBCU sales events including the upfronts and will continue to oversee commerce and commercial innovation.
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Previously executive VP, head of marketing and advertising creative, Feldman joined NBCU in 2016 from Turner Broadcasting.
Winiarski, who had been executive VP, ad sales planning & monetization, joined NBCU in 2015 after 21 years at Turner.
Winiarski will continue to organize the sales team around the One Platform, all audience approach and work with technology teams to automate systems and create value for clients.
“The pandemic really accelerated a change in the way consumers were using media and we wanted to provide our clients with an opportunity to reach our viewers--ultimately, hopefully, their customers--by working across linear and digital,” Winiarski said.
NBCU was able to optimize plans based on Nielsen demographic data across its entire content footprint using its AdSmart system, which was designed to handle more advanced consumer segments. That was a step toward transacting on those advanced targets.
The company has also changed the focus of its planning process from one based on networks to one more focused on the needs of clients and agencies.
“What we want to do is have dedicated resources that can dig deeper and get a better understanding of how we can deliver for our clients,” Winiarski said. “We continue to invest in technology to get to a place where we can really target linear with the precision of digital at scale and ease the process of transaction for clients.”
Here is Linda Yaccarino’s memo announcing the promotions:
Team,
I said it right before the holidays, and I'll say it again: last year was an unbelievably transformative year for our company. We have radically shifted the way we operate, totally realigned our organization, and continued to lead the industry with our One Platform vision. One Platform exists today, and is driving our success, because of THIS TEAM--and as a platform, we are only as strong as the people on it.
Today, I'm proud to recognize three people who have helped lead that radical transformation with outstanding results: Krishan Bhatia, Josh Feldman, and Tom Winiarski.
Along with the rest of our leadership team—Krishan, Josh, and Tom have helped usher in our One Platform future across their teams, our organization, the company, and our industry. These three promotions reflect a renewed mandate for us to become the best possible partners in every single area we operate. And with your help, these leaders will continue to animate our vision and accelerate our progress in their areas of expertise.
First, Krishan will become President & Chief Business Officer. In addition to heading our Strategy, Product, Technology, Measurement and Operations functions for One Platform, Krishan will now also have oversight and budget responsibility for Digital & Advanced Advertising Sales, as well as our Account Services team. Additionally, in this new role, Krishan will continue to help me build out the new enterprise-wide data platform for the company. With this One Platform view across Digital, Strategy, Technology and Operations, Krishan will continue to help future-proof our business on our journey towards becoming the leading Global Advertising Platform.
Meanwhile, Josh Feldman will become our Chief Marketing Officer. Creativity is at heart of our vision and Josh has done outstanding work leading our transformative marketing efforts. Last year Josh's team redefined how we showed up in the marketplace by deploying PSAs to keep Americans informed about COVID-19, creating a legacy-shattering Upfront 30 Rock Special, uniting the industry in our first Creativity Summit, and developing an innovative suite of new commerce solutions. Now, Josh will bring trade marketing into his group, and unify all marketing, creative, production and commerce efforts within the Creative Partnerships structure.
Finally, Tom will be elevated to President, Platform Monetization. As the leader of our Planning and Monetization practice, Tom will oversee the continued, massive transformation of our organization, and help mobilize and coordinate our entire Sales team as we go to market as One Platform. In this elevated role, he’ll help drive us closer to an all audience future, and work closely with our technology teams to automate our systems and leverage One Platform to create more value for us and our clients.
On a personal note, I have had the privilege of working with these three for a long time—and each of them brings incredible expertise, the courage to think big, and the commitment to execute. They’re great people, and I’m proud to call them colleagues and friends. They each embody what I love about this team, and I am so excited to see them thrive.
Please join me in congratulating them when you have a chance.
Linda Yaccarino
Chairman, Global Advertising & Partnerships, NBCUniversal
