NBCUniversal restructures the leadership of Advertising & Partnerships

Under the leadership of newly appointed Advertising and Partnerships Global Chairman Mark Marshall, NBCUniversal has named industry leader Alison Levin as President of Advertising and Partnerships, and upped Karen Kovacs to President of Client Partnerships. Joining the company next month, Levin will assume oversight of all advertising sales initiatives for NBCUniversal across national, local, SMB Growth, Peacock, sports and Olympic and Paralympic Sales. Levin, who will report directly into Marshall, will also help shape and execute the division’s new audience-focused sales strategy. In Kovacs’s new role, she will report into Marshall and continue to lead all new and emerging client relationships, while also gaining oversight of the company’s National Offices. In this newly expanded position, Kovacs and her team will work across NBCUniversal to develop 360 partnerships with top CMOs throughout the industry to help drive results for their businesses. “Alison is extremely well-respected across the advertising ecosystem for her focus on partnership as well as her innovative leadership in the Connected TV and digital ad space,” Marshall said. “As a pioneer of the shift to data-driven selling, Alison brought instrumental value to the marketplace at large, and I have no doubt her acumen and experience will bring incredible value to our team. Karen Kovacs has been essential in the collaboration and growth of our enterprise partnerships with clients, and I could not be more thrilled to have these two talented executives join our broader leadership team in advancing our division forward.” Before joining NBCUniversal, Levin served as Vice President of Global Ad Revenue and Marketing Solutions at Roku where she led the new product and go-to-market strategy for the company’s advertising business, including the TV streaming division. As the first ad sales hire for the company, Levin shaped Roku’s early value proposition with advertisers and built out the ad sales and support teams both in the U.S. and internationally, including marketing, research, analytics, publishing partnerships, strategy and more. Prior to Roku, she was a sales executive with YuMe, managing key accounts for its ad tech business, and has held sales positions with IAC and BusinessWeek. Levin has received industry-wide recognition and was named to the 2019 Ad Age 40 Under 40 List, the 2019 NYC Television Week’s 40 Under 40 List, the 2020 Cynopsis Top Women in Media List, the 2021 Multichannel News Wonder Women Honoree List, and the 2023 Campaign US Inspiring Women Honoree List. Prior to this role, Kovacs served as Executive Vice President, Client Partnerships for NBCUniversal’s Advertising and Partnership’s division where she oversaw several major client efforts, including the development and launch of NBCUniversal’s Family is Universal campaign. Levin and Kovacs will join Marshall’s business directs along with John Lee, Chief Data Officer; Ryan McConville, EVP, Advertising, Platforms and Operations; Josh Feldman, Global Chief Marketing Officer; Peter Blacker, Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; and Randy Culbertson, EVP and CFO.