Linda Yaccarino

Chairman, Advertising Sales & Client Partnerships, NBCUniversal

With Yaccarino at the helm, NBCU’s 2016 upfront was the most successful since the merger with Comcast. The numbers hit a cool $6 billion. Her strategy resulted in gains across broadcast, cable and digital sales. Moreover, she’s spearheaded NBCU’s transition into a tech-driven content company by introducing a suite of cutting-edge data, analytics and consumer targeting tools, including its Audience Studio, the Audience Targeting Platform, the NBCUx programmatic offering and NBCU+ Powered by Comcast, a data-driven program for clients. Other content partnerships under her direction include AOL and Snapchat, as well as investments in digital trailblazers BuzzFeed and Vox Media. In the coming year, she’ll continue to experiment with ad models that are data informed, such as a reduction of national ad load for “Saturday Night Live” by 30 percent this fall.