We now know the management structure that Comcast will put in place once it acquires control of NBC Universal from General Electric. Incoming CEO Steve Burke, pictured, currently COO of Comcast, has named his team.
In an email to staffers, Burke said he had been working hard to identify people inside both NBCU and Comcast, as well as outsiders, who would be best for the new leadership team. Those taking the biggest jobs include Bob Greenblatt, joining the company from formerly serving as Entertainment President at CBS-owned Showtime, who will become Chairman, NBC Entertainment; and Bonnie Hammer, President of NBC Universal Cable, who will get the title of Chairman and expanded duties overseeing the cable networks and studio. Comcast Entertainment Group CEO Ted Harbert will become the sales boss and more as Chairman, NBC Broadcasting. Also, long-time NBC Sports boss Dick Ebersol will add the sports networks coming from the Comcast side to his portfolio.
Along with the previously announced exits of the two Jeffs – current NBCU CEO Jeff Zucker and NBCU Television Entertainment Chairman Jeff Gaspin – Burke told staffers that Mike Pilot, NBCU President of Sales & Marketing, and Allison Gollust, NBCU Executive Vice President of Corporate Communications, will leave the company when the GE-to-Comcast transaction closes.
You can’t tell the players without a program. Here is the program:
Bonnie Hammer will become Chairman, NBC Universal Cable Entertainment and Cable Studios. USA, SyFy, E! Entertainment, G4, Chiller, Sleuth, Universal HD and UCP (Universal Cable Productions) will report to Hammer. Neil Tiles will remain President of G4 and report to Hammer as will a newly appointed president of E! Entertainment.
Lauren Zalaznick will become Chairman, NBC Universal Entertainment & Digital Networks and Integrated Media. Bravo, Oxygen, and iVillage will continue to report to Zalaznick, as will the Integrated Strategic Marketing Group, which oversees initiatives including Green Is Universal, Healthy at NBC Universal and Women at NBC Universal. Digital properties Daily Candy and
Fandango, Spanish language broadcaster Telemundo, and cable networks mun2, Style, and PBS Sprout will also report to Zalaznick.
Telemundo will continue to be led by Don Browne (President) and Jackie Hernandez (Chief Operating Officer); Salaam Coleman Smith will continue to lead Style; and Chuck Davis will continue to lead Fandango and Daily Candy, each reporting to Zalaznick.
Dave Cassaro will become President, Cable Advertising Sales, reporting to both Hammer and Zalaznick. Cassaro will be responsible for cable and digital sales. Steve Mandala, Peter Naylor and Mike Rodriguez will report to Cassaro.
Ted Harbert will join NBC Universal from Comcast as Chairman, NBC Broadcasting. Harbert will be responsible for broadcast advertising sales, NBC affiliate relations, companywide research, domestic TV syndication and the NBC station group. Alan Wurtzel, Barry Wallach, Vivi Zigler and John Wallace will report to Harbert.
Marianne Gambelli will become President, NBC Network Advertising Sales. She will be responsible for network primetime, news and sports advertising sales and she will report to Harbert.
.
Bob Greenblatt will become Chairman, NBC Entertainment, responsible for all aspects of prime time and late night programming, business affairs, West Coast research, marketing, public relations, scheduling and NBC Universal Media Studios. Most recently, Greenblatt was President, Entertainment for Showtime Networks. Marc Graboff and Angela Bromstad will report to Bob.
Steve Capus will continue to serve as President of NBC News/MSNBC.
Mark Hoffman will continue in his position as President of CNBC.
Dick Ebersol will become Chairman of the NBC Sports Group. He will be responsible for NBC Sports, The Golf Channel, Versus and the Comcast Regional Sports Networks. Jon Litner (RSNs), Jamie Davis (Versus) and Earl Marshall (Golf) will report to Ebersol.
Ron Meyer will continue to be President and COO, Universal Studios. Adam Fogelson will continue as Chairman, Universal Pictures and Tom Williams will be in charge of Universal Parks and Resorts.
Jeff Shell will join NBC Universal from Comcast and move to London to become Chairman of NBC Universal International. Peter Smith will report to Shell.
Lynn Calpeter will continue to be Executive Vice President and CFO of NBC Universal. In addition to the financial team, Ed Swindler, COO of Ad Sales, will report to Calpeter and he will be heavily involved in companywide sales efforts.
Pat Fili-Krushel will join NBC Universal as Executive Vice President with a broad portfolio of functions reporting to her, including Media Works, Business Strategy, Human Resources and Legal. She joins NBCU from Time Warner, where she served as Executive Vice President, Administration.
Rick Cotton will continue to serve as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of NBC Universal and will report to Fili-Krushel and Burke.
Salil Mehta will continue to serve as President, Business Operations, Strategy and Development for NBC Universal and will also report to Fili-Krushel.
John Eck will continue his role as President of Media Works, reporting to Fili-Krushel as well.
Adam Miller will join NBC Universal as Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs. Communications will report to Miller and he will also work on special projects. He joins the company from the Abernathy MacGregor Group, where he was President and served as a longstanding adviser to Comcast.
Matt Bond will join NBC Universal from Comcast as Executive Vice President, Content Distribution, responsible for domestic television content and digital distribution. Bridget Baker and JB Perrette will report to Bond.
Paula Madison will continue to serve as Executive Vice President, Diversity.
Page Thompson will join NBC Universal from Comcast as Executive Vice President, Strategic Integration, responsible for identifying synergy opportunities between Comcast, NBC, Universal Studios and Parks and the cable channels.
RBR-TVBR observation: That’s a lot of new business cards to be printed! It appears Burke cast a wide net to fill the positions in the organizational structure he wants for the new NBCU. He emphasized, though, that none of the changes take place until the deal wins regulatory approval and goes to closing. Jeff Zucker is still in charge until that day comes.
