Behind any show, on any screen, there’s an entire economic infrastructure at work. No person has had a bigger hand in shaping it than Linda Yaccarino. Every day, she transforms the $70 billion television industry.
Since joining NBCUniversal in 2011, Yaccarino has grown the company’s annual advertising and partnership revenue to over $12 billion. She achieved this by completely reengineering the advertising and partnership business for the 21st century. Bringing together individual network teams to create a united monetization strategy, she has become the strategic and operational bridge across all of NBCUniversal's global networks, properties, and business units. In short, Yaccarino puts the "P" in the company's P&L.
As Chairman of Global Advertising and Partnerships, Yaccarino stewards the company’s industry-leading portfolio of linear networks, digital platforms, distribution partnerships, and client relationships. Yaccarino oversees all Global, National and Local Ad Sales, Partnerships, Marketing, Measurement, and Strategic Initiatives, and is spearheading a new cross-company Data Strategy effort. This is part of Yaccarino's continued focus on serving all audiences on all screens, creating a single, scaled advertising offering for all businesses, no matter where they operate—locally, nationally, or globally.
Her entrepreneurial energy, coupled with a record for delivering growth, has helped connect established and emerging brands in every industry to hundreds of millions of consumers. As the first chief in history to bring the company’s assets to market as One Portfolio, her strategies have become ubiquitous in the industry. In addition to repeatedly transforming the ad marketplace, she has also led massive technology investments and built One Platform, a revolutionary all-audience model.
More recently, Yaccarino shepherded NBCUniversal through the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring the company upheld its commitment to viewers, advertisers, and a broader community of stakeholders. Yaccarino’s team partnered with the Ad Council, the White House, and various government agencies to develop and deploy a massive PSA campaign that educated millions of Americans about COVID-19. In 2021, she leveraged talent and resources for the public good by taking charge of the Ad Council’s vaccination education campaign, which reached over three quarters of all Americans. And to prepare NBCU employees for the future of work, her division created a state-of-the-art Center of Excellence, designed to democratize insights, resources, and training materials industry-wide.
Since the acquisition of Sky, Yaccarino has scaled her transformative approach to create the first global premium video advertising solution. She has also led the development of the first-ever combined advertising and sponsorship program for the LA 2028 Olympics, and she has united the advanced video advertising capabilities of both NBCUniversal and Sky to create a groundbreaking global offering for marketers. Through her leadership of the joint Global Advertising & Partnerships team, she continues to oversee NBCUniversal’s One Platform offering worldwide, giving marketers unparalleled global scale with one simple way to optimize, plan, deliver, and measure their investment.
Over the course of her career, Yaccarino’s leadership has earned her many awards. In 2020, New York Women in Communications honored her with the prestigious Matrix Award. She’s been recognized as one of Business Insider’s “Top 10 People Transforming Advertising”; Adweek’s “Ten Most Powerful Women in TV”; The Hollywood Reporter’s “Women in Entertainment: Power 100”; and Variety’s “Power Women of New York.” Yaccarino has been inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame, and has received the UJA Foundation’s Mac Dane Award for Humanitarian Excellence, as well as the Distinguished Alumni Award from her alma mater, Penn State University, where she has delivered the Don Davis Lecture in Advertising Ethics.