NBCUniversal Restructures Ad Exec Ranks; Sports Vet And Olympics Chief Dan Lovinger Among Staffers Exiting

Don Lavinger, who recently spearheaded NBCUniversal‘s advertising bonanza at the Paris Olympics, is among a handful of employees exiting the company amid a broad restructuring of its ad exec ranks.

The overhaul was announced Monday by Allison Levin, President of Advertising and Partnerships, who joined NBCU last December after nearly nine years at Roku. (Read her full memo below.)

Along with the departures of some staffers, Levin also signaled plans to hire some new workers in emerging business areas. She will address the changes in a virtual all-hands meeting on Tuesday.

Of the approach to sports, Levin wrote, “This expanded team, which will now include all Olympic sales as well as our Sports vertical, will leverage a unified strategy across all sports assets to maximize revenue from our properties and will be led by Peter Lazarus.” In 2022, Lazarus was promoted to the lead role overseeing sports advertising, while Lavinger was shifted into an Olympics-centric post. His title was President, Olympic and Paralympic Sales. Lavinger joined NBCU in 2011 after prior exec stints at MTV Networks, CNBC and Turner Broadcasting.

“This new structure means we are also saying goodbye to some of our longtime colleagues and friends,” Levin wrote. “These decisions are never easy, and I want to thank those leaders for their dedication and many contributions to NBCUniversal. Our business is stronger today because of their hard work.   

“As we look forward, it is imperative that we support one another and continue to foster a culture of transparency and collaboration. I am incredibly bullish on our future, and with this new streamlined structure, I know we have the right strategy, the right assets, and the right team in place to grow our market share and better position us to succeed.”

NBCU said it brought in more than $1.25 billion in ad and sponsorship revenue from the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, a new Olympic record.

Here is Levin’s full memo:

Hi All, 

I’m reaching out to share an update about our Sales team. In the nine months since joining NBCU, I’ve been impressed and inspired by this group’s creativity, innovation, and hard work. Through that time, I’ve also gained a better understanding of the Sales organization along with deeper clarity on the changes we need to make as we look into the future.

Together, our team must be hyper-focused on growing the business, selling audiences first, and maximizing revenue for our big moments. To best achieve these goals, we need a structure that enables our sales team to do what they do best — sell — while bolstering our support functions to more effectively handle operational tasks, speed up decision-making and streamline processes. In addition, we need to invest more heavily in key growth areas like programmatic expansion and client diversification.

As such, we are making some key changes to how we function as a team. Our new Sales leadership and the key business areas that will report into me are as follows: 

Agency & Major Holding Company Oversight: All agencies and major Holding Companies will now be led by Mark Miller and Ann Scheiner,and will be supported by our incredibly strong bench of agency SVPs. Mark will continue to oversee Magna and our Global business as well as assume responsibility for Publicis. Ann will continue to oversee Dentsu and GroupM as well as add OMG.  

Advertiser Diversification & Strategic Revenue Growth: This new pillar will bring together key business groups and be responsible for diversifying our revenue from new advertisers and partnerships under a new EVP role.

Sports & Olympics: This expanded team, which will now include all Olympic sales as well as our Sports vertical, will leverage a unified strategy across all sports assets to maximize revenue from our properties and will be led by Peter Lazarus.  

Local: This team will continue to be led by Frank Comerford, overseeing all commercial efforts for the division’s local television stations and associated platforms.  

Christina Glorioso will continue to lead the training and development of our Sales team through our Center of Excellence program, reporting into me, and Melissa Laux will continue to lead Sales Enablement, dually reporting into Karen Kovacs and me. Additionally, we will also be hiring new mid-level roles to reflect our investment in key growth areas.  

This new structure means we are also saying goodbye to some of our longtime colleagues and friends. These decisions are never easy, and I want to thank those leaders for their dedication and many contributions to NBCUniversal. Our business is stronger today because of their hard work.  

As we look forward, it is imperative that we support one another and continue to foster a culture of transparency and collaboration. I am incredibly bullish on our future, and with this new streamlined structure, I know we have the right strategy, the right assets, and the right team in place to grow our market share and better position us to succeed.  

I’ll be sharing more details with my team about our new structure and plans for the future in a virtual All-Hands meeting on Tuesday, October 15, at 12:30pm ET (invite to follow). I look forward to seeing you all there.

Thank you,
Alison