NBCUniversal said it hired Roku’s Alison Levin as president of Advertising and Partnerships.
The move underscores the importance of streaming at the big media companies.
NBCU also promoted Karen Kovacs to president of client partnerships
Levin, who had been VP of global ad revenue and marketing solutions at Roku, will report to Mark Marshall, global chairman of advertising and partnerships at NBCU.
The hire was one of the first for Marshall since replacing Linda Yaccarino, who left NBCU to become CEO of Twitter.
In her new post, Levin will oversee all advertising sales initiatives across national, local, small- and medium-sized businesses, Peacock, sports, Olympics and Paralympics.
“Alison is extremely well-respected across the advertising ecosystem for her focus on partnership as well as her innovative leadership in the Connected TV and digital ad space,“ Marshall said. “As a pioneer of the shift to data-driven selling, Alison brought instrumental value to the marketplace at large, and I have no doubt her acumen and experience will bring incredible value to our team.”
Roku last week reported an 18% increase in platform revenue, which includes ad sales.
“Karen Kovacs has been essential in the collaboration and growth of our enterprise partnerships with clients, and I could not be more thrilled to have these two talented executives join our broader leadership team in advancing our division forward,” Marshall added.
Kovacs had been executive VP, client partnerships for NBCU’s advertising and partnerships unit. She will also report to Marshall.
