Jessica Rodriguez

EVP, Programming and Scheduling Univision Networks

Since 2001, Rodriguez has been particularly adept at growing the cable networks’ portfolio. Today Rodriguez is head of the Univision Agency as well, which oversees the company’s media inventory—amounting to more than $500 million across its portfolio. How does she manage it all? “It’s important to understand that sometimes your personal life will take precedence at any given moment over work and sometimes, often times, it’s vice versa,” she says. “I just make it work and try not to be too hard on myself. I find that being an early bird helps me, too.”

I just came back from spending two weeks with family in a Tuscan villa in Italy, so I’d love to swap jobs with our chef at the villa. I love to cook and don’t do it as much as I would like to, plus I would get to practice my Italian (which is still at a basic level) and I could have unlimited wine and cheese. All kidding aside, the two weeks there in a different culture, in a completely new environment, really allowed me to disconnect and come back with a renewed creative spirit. As head of the Univision Agency and overseeing our on air creative, it’s a job where I think you can burn out if you aren’t conscious of it, and so I think a month at an Italian villa, as delightful as it would be for me personally, it would ultimately make me a better person professionally as well.