UPDATES COMCAST-NBCU: Ted Harbert And Bob Greenblatt To Run NBC, Pat Fili-Krushel Also Coming
UPDATES New Comcast/NBCU Organizational Structure
NBC Universal boss Steve Burke today made the new organizational structure official for NBC broadcasting, NBC Entertainment, NBCU cable, and Universal Studios and Universal Pictures:
For nearly a year, we have worked hard to identify people from NBC Universal, Comcast and outside the
two companies to form our new leadership team when the deal closes. Our goal has been to find people who have the skill sets we need to succeed and who reflect the values that will be the hallmark of NBC Universal, including teamwork, integrity, creativity and a commitment to treating people the right way.
We have also been very focused on putting in place the best possible organizational structure. To that end, we have created some new positions, changed the scope of others, and shifted some reporting assignments. We think we’ve developed a structure that organizes the company in the smartest way possible.
We are beginning our leadership announcements now because with the anticipated close of the deal nearing, we want to give everyone enough time to begin to think about the specific opportunities and challenges they will face beginning the day of the close. This is particularly true for areas that have transition work to complete before we close. While new roles won’t be effective until the deal closes, and while there will be more announcements to come, it is important that we are prepared to hit the ground running.
To that end, I am pleased to make the following initial announcements of members of the new NBC Universal senior management team:
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 Bonnie. Neil Tiles will remain President of G4 and report to Bonnie 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 Lauren, 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 Lauren.
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 Lauren.
Dave Cassaro will become President, Cable Advertising Sales, reporting to both Bonnie and Lauren. Dave will be responsible for cable and digital sales. Steve Mandala, Peter Naylor and Mike Rodriguez will report to Dave.
Ted Harbert will join NBC Universal from Comcast as Chairman, NBC Broadcasting. Ted 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 Ted.
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 Ted.
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, Bob was President, Entertainment for Showtime Networks, Inc. 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 Dick.
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 Jeff.
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 Lynn 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. Pat joins us 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 Pat and me.
Salil Mehta will continue to serve as President, Business Operations, Strategy and Development for NBC Universal and will also report to Pat.
John Eck will continue his role as President of Media Works, reporting to Pat as well.
Adam Miller will join NBC Universal as Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs. Communications will report to Adam and he will also work on special projects. Adam joins us 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 Matt.
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.
Jeff Gaspin, Mike Pilot and Allison Gollust will be leaving NBC Universal at the close of the transaction. These transitions are often difficult and at times people who have made great contributions end up leaving. I want to thank them for their hard work and professionalism throughout the transition planning process.
The team described above will not begin to operate the company until after the transaction closes, which will occur following regulatory approval. Between now and then, each business will continue to be managed by its respective leadership team, and NBC Universal will continue to be led by Jeff Zucker, whose talent, hard work and commitment have been instrumental in building NBC Universal into the company it is today.
I also want to take this opportunity to thank everyone at NBC Universal and the Comcast Programming Group for your continued patience, hard work and focus. While this announcement provides some clarity to some roles and responsibilities, it is only the first in what will be a series of milestones as we move into 2011.
I hope you are as excited as I am by the prospect of what we can accomplish together in the future.
Steve



“…NBC Universal will continue to be led by Jeff Zucker, whose talent, hard work and
commitment have been instrumental in building NBC Universal into
the company it is today.”
HAHAHA! Steve, you are as funny today as you were ten years ago! What a backhand to the face! Yes indeed, Jeff’s talents sure have been instrumental in turning NBC into what it is today: a shell of a network with no definable audience and virtually nothing in the form of an out-of-the-box hit. What a disaster “The Zucker Unit” has turned out to be.
I was thinking the same thing! You can read it as a compliment… but you shouldn’t.
What happens to fearnet?
comcast dumped it awhile ago–run by sony (distribution) and lionsgate (programming and marketing) now
Assuming this memo is accurate it is a great relief to see they are not touching the leads for any of the news groups. Regardless of what you may think of them, at least what limited independence they have left is being honored to some degree.
You call them NEWS GR$OUPS!?!?….and I guess you voted for OBAMA too…??
Thank goodness they are leaving Ron Meyer and the Studio alone. Get GE out of the way so studio operations can do what they know how to do so well. GE can go back to toasters
I thought GE brought good things to life?
Excuse me, but what has Meyer done lately, besides bringing a bunch of flops to UPix????? Not GE’s fault… Seems that Burke missed a cobweb when he was cleaning house!
Where is Donna Langley in this?
yeah, her name was VERY noticeably absent. Well, since she’s made really all the creative decisions . . .
Bromstad still in huh? So basically she’s a lameduck. Better hope this development season is off the charts.
Bonnie Hammer, Bob Greenblatt, Salil Mehta….I expect a call what…Monday?
Angela Bromstad stays? shocked.
Bet anything she’ll go. They can’t really kick her out yet cuz then there really is nobody at the ent div until the merger goes through. They need at least a shell of something to get them through the merger – especially if there are delays. When Greenblatt announces his own team, bet anything she’ll be quickly out too. Nobody in the community of any importance would be advising him to keep her.
No Focus Features mention? Did I miss it or something?
OMG – I did not see it either. Isn’t Focus Features a separate entity of Universal?
Comcast should offer Jeff Wachtel a choice job at NBC.
And if he’s smart, he should turn it down.
Jeff Wachtel seems like a moron.
“Our goal has been to find people … [with] integrity, creativity and a commitment to treating people the right way.”
And you left Lalaznick in play…bit of a disconnect there…
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT WAS A SHOCKER, Steve Burke spent so much time sharing his views on the values at comcast on leadership and management. “People that don’t treat teams well, have personal agenda before business don’t do well at Comcast”.
How did he give Zalaznick a role? She is evil and everyone knows it….
Real Brother here.
Dick Ebersol is a good choice for The Golf Channel as he did a great job at NBC Sports giving Bryant Gumbel his first Network Gig. As long as they don’t try to become FOX LIGHT over and MSNBC or tell the LIE that the Racists on the Right have a legitimate argument then I think they will survive.The fact that so many of these companies are merging and becoming ONE is disturbing though.
TKCAL
yo, real brother… Ebersol did not give Gumbel his first network gig… Arthur Watson (RIP) and Michael Weisman did.
Racists on the Right?? Excuse me…??? Everyone knows that the racists are on the LEFT…Moron….DO you read ANY History??
Chet Simmons and Arthur Watson offered Bryant Gumbel his network gig at NBC… not Dick Ebersol. Bryant had done work on the NCAA basketball tournament which impressed the two of them and Scotty Connal who was then Executive Producer. It was well deserved by Bryant and a decision which would help NBC Sports for many years.
So, who takes over E?
Bye, Ed Chung.
I still gotta say, hopefully Lauren will get rid of Salaam as she is an empty suit–not a creative bone in her body. Just a typical social and hollywood climber. So if Burke is looking for creativity in his execs–boot Salaam please.
Well, I guess they must do this transition planning, but I, for one, was hoping that the merger would not go through. The media conglomerates are already too powerful.
I have worked with Salaam Coleman Smith for many years at CEG and the only thing she is good at is avoiding minefields. Salaam IS A POLITICAL ANIMAL not a creative exec who can build buzz and find great shows. Her team can’t stand her and she only manages up. If she avoids these minefields, then god help us.
“the only thing she is good at is avoiding minefields. Salaam IS A POLITICAL ANIMAL not a creative exec who can build buzz and find great shows.
“also @ not a fan “hopefully Lauren will get rid of Salaam as she is an empty suit–not a creative bone in her body. Just a typical social and hollywood climber.”
Isn’t that the unfortunate problem of this business at all of the studios? Time after time, we read these same type comments from the staff at each of the studios every time there is a restructuring. It’s very sad. Hollywood is primarily now run by nothing but political social climbers who are interested in nothing but money and power. Very few seem to be driven by creativity. The old adage that “the cream rises to the top” is not true in Hollywood. It’s more like a swamp in that the slime rises to the top.
Making great movies is no longer a goal, but avoiding minefield and gaining money and power are. This is why TV and movies suck today.
There may be changes at NBC Uni but it really is the same shit, different day…
“Ron Meyer will continue to be President and COO, Universal Studios. Adam Fogelson will continue as Chairman, Universal Pictures.”
Not for long.
Kolb gets E! or Bonnie will put in her own person…that way she can watch over things in LA when she isn’t in town…
I don’t get it, what’s all this shit about a Zucker farewell tour, and weeping that Nikki has been reporting on, if he’s indeed staying? Hmmm…
Okay, so what happens to Kevin McClellan? Looks like he got screwed.
Inside Deep? You’re dreaming. Ron may eventually “retire” but Adam isn’t going anywhere.
So who is president of e!?
Steve Burke is a much needed voice of reason over there, and Greenblatt is just the man to help amplify that voice.
Funny, no mention of the many of the Comcast Entertainment execs – Dolcemaschio, Kolb, Nagarian, McClellan. They should all be terrified for their jobs.
Nagarian is a total suck up that has B (at best) level experience. No vision. Big ego. No expertise. He’d be a mid-level VP anywhere else. He hasn’t done one innovative deal since he’s been there.
Kolb has been infatuated with Harbert (as well as all of her previous male bosses) and has failed upwards. No creativity and absolutely not strategic. Formulaic at best. BAD Manager too. Her staff is equally mediocre. ONly works well with other middle age unattractive single women. Treats her male employees like crap and through intimidation.
McCClellan – Smart but butters up to Ted. Will show how she lasts working for another woman. This should be a good cat fight.
Dolcemashio – a numbers cruncher who can’t think outside of an excel spreadsheet.
These folks – as well as Berger and Smith – got rid of anyone who came in with an original thought or strategic vision.
Zalazneck and Hammer at NBC will eat em alive – and spit em out. Lauren and Bonnie will quickly realize how useless they are – and how grossly overpaid and bonused they are. See ya.
agreed here. all of them will be toast soon…except cindy. she might run e! but kolb is gunning for it and smith is gunning for more territory too beyond style, so watch her try to get e! instead of style. but i think they realize smith does not have the creative chops so she will continue to manage her teeny tiny network with a big old president title and salary.
Anonymous….(not that anonymous…I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!)
Your comments about Suzanne Kolb are hilarious. You claim she has “no creativity” among other things. Yet you have a) called yourself with the “most creative” name on this chain….b) have posted the same comments about her two days straight, if not more. Who are you to judge anyone else’s creativity, let alone their ability.
Let me guess…Suzanne didn’t think your work was up to par and she let you know, very directly…..too directly for your big ego, limited capabilities and even smaller brain to handle. WEAKLING!
I worked with Suzanne at The WB and relied upon her smarts and effort many times. She never failed.
You, on the other hand, obviously couldn’t meet her high standards….Standards that she demands from herself, not just from others. You should get on your knees and pray that you could have her talent and dedication.
Pity you. Go find a gig at Lifetime with those boobs from A&E. You will fit right in.
Steve Burke is a much needed voice of reason over there, and Greenblatt is just the man to help amplify that voice.