NBCU’s Advertising & Partnerships Adds 5 Industry Executives

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, the company said, “will strengthen NBCUniversal’s executive expertise across the breadth of its data, technology and measurement initiatives.” They are: Dan Bernard, SVP, brand engagement; Kaitie Coghlan, SVP, data product and partnerships; Nick Illobre, SVP, product strategy and business development enterprise data; Leah van Zelm, SVP, data science; and Maggie Zhang, SVP, 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,” said Krishan Bhatia, president and chief business officer, NBCUniversal. “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.”

Each executive brings deep industry experience gained at some of the industry’s leading companies:

Dan 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 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, 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 is partnering with NBCUniversal brands and business units to better leverage company-wide first-party data for analysis, predictive modeling and targeting, and audience development and activation. Prior to joining, van Zelm built out and led Universal Parks and Resorts media and digital global analytics team. She’s also held roles at Dentsu APAC, Merkle, Accenture and Charter Communications.

Maggie 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 and 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.