New York, NY – October 19, 2022 — NBCUniversal today announced the appointment of five senior executives to its Global Advertising and Partnerships division, bolstering the company’s ability to continue delivering on the technology and partnership vision unveiled at its One22 conference.
The new appointments will strengthen NBCUniversal’s executive expertise across the breadth of its data, technology and measurement initiatives and include: Dan Bernard, Senior Vice President, Brand Engagement; Kaitie Coghlan, Senior Vice President, Data Product and Partnerships; Nick Illobre, Senior Vice President, Product Strategy and Business Development Enterprise Data; Leah van Zelm, Senior Vice President, Data Science; and Maggie Zhang, Senior Vice President, Measurement Strategy and Operations.
“NBCUniversal sits at the intersection of media and technology, and our One Platform™ approach is built for the new era of media to ensure that marketers and advertisers can reach all audiences across all screens in a unified manner. However, we must continue to push for future-proofed solutions. Today’s appointments demonstrate our ongoing commitment to transforming our data, technology and measurement capabilities – and ultimately our mission to help our customers better engage with their audiences.”
-Krishan Bhatia, President & Chief Business Officer, NBCUniversal
Each executive brings deep industry experience gained at some of the industry’s leading companies:
- Dan Bernard, Senior Vice President, Brand Engagement. Bernard joins NBCUniversal with more than 20 years of addressable marketing experience. At NBCUniversal, he is leveraging the Unified platform to build cross-brand campaigns and customer experiences with NBCU’s own businesses. Bernard most recently led Performance Marketing account management at Real Chemistry where he established new client service models, integrating the agency’s data, analytics and technology offerings.
- Kaitie Coghlan, Senior Vice President, Data Product and Partnerships. Coghlan joins NBCUniversal to oversee the strategic business partnerships and drive the development of NBCUnified, the company’s best-in-class, first-party data asset united by NBCU’s trusted relationships with 230 million monthly consumers. Coghlan brings more than 15 years of sales, product and people management experience.
- Nick Illobre, Senior Vice President, Product Strategy and Business Development Enterprise Data. At NBCUniversal, Illobre is working with marketers and their agencies to best leverage NBCUnified and continue to grow the company’s data offering. Illobre most recently led the product management team at Veeva Crossix. He was responsible for audience targeting and measurement products at Veeva Crossix including the release of DIFA TV where linear television campaigns could be measured to understand the impact on pharmaceutical champaigns. Prior to his time Veeva Crossix, Illobre was head of product for dentsu’s M1 platform and helped to build the digital media buying capabilities within Merkle.
- Leah van Zelm, Senior Vice President, Data Science. In her new role, van Zelm is partnering with NBCUniversal brands and business units to better leverage company-wide 1st party data for analysis, predictive modeling and targeting, and audience development and activation. Prior to joining, van Zelm built out and led Universal Park’s and Resorts media & digital global analytics team. She’s also held roles at Dentsu APAC, Merkle, Accenture, and Charter Communications.
- Maggie Zhang, Senior Vice President, Measurement Strategy and Operations. Zhang will help spearhead the next phase of NBCUniversal’s efforts to transform the measurement landscape. She most recently led the measurement success team at Amazon Ads. Prior to her time at Amazon, Zhang lent her breadth of knowledge and expertise to Dentsu as EVP of Video Research & Insights.
Bernard, Coghlan, Illobre and van Zelm will report to Chief Data Officer John Lee, while Zhang will report to Executive Vice President for Measurement and Impact Kelly Abcarian.
About NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal is one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news and information to a global audience. NBCUniversal owns and operates a valuable portfolio of news and entertainment television networks, a premier motion picture company, significant television production operations, a leading television stations group, world-renowned theme parks, and a premium ad-supported streaming service. NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation.
