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Linda Yaccarino

Title: President, Cable Entertainment and Digital Advertising Sales, NBCU

Years in Cable: 15

Education: BA, Telecommunications, Penn State

Best Advice in 7 Words Or Less: Have a great attitude and work hard.

Why Her? With her game-changing move this fall to NBCU from the Turner, Yaccarino goes from top of the heap to peak of the heap. The new gig broadens her portfolio, handling entertainment and digital advertising sales for USA, Syfy, Bravo Media, E! Entertainment, Oxygen Media, Style, G4, Sprout, Chiller, Cloo and their respective digital platforms; as well as nearly a dozen unique online enterprises. Once she has settled in and worked her magic at NBCU, we suspect she’ll move up the 100 list handily.

Certifiable: Yaccarino remains one of cable’s most celebrated women. This year alone, she was hailed by Business Week as a “CEO of Tomorrow” and inducted into the CableFAX Sales Hall of Fame.

Year Ahead: Yaccarino’s record includes innovative ad partnerships and programming deals for “The Mentalist,” “The Big Bang Theory” and “Hawaii Five-O.” She also set a cable record for price parity with the late 2010 launch of “Conan” on TBS. If she delivers such brand-name deals for NBCU, 2012’s forecast looks clear and sunny.

The biggest cable innovation over the last year: TV Everywhere

One thing I tell my kids about success in life: Never, never, never give up.

Favorite Starbucks order: Skinny Vanilla Latte

Favorite sports team: Penn State Nittany Lion Hockey Team

Favorite vacation spot: Anywhere in Italy.

If I could only have authenticated online access to 5 cable networks (not affiliated with my company): Food Network, Travel Channel, ESPN, HBO, TNT ?