Maryam Banikarim Named Gannett CMO

Maryam Banikarim today was named senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Gannett Co., a newly created position. Banikarim will be responsible for all companywide marketing, communications and research efforts. She will also be a member of the Gannett Management Committee.

She joins Gannett from NBCUniversal where she was SVP of integrated sales marketing responsible for working across NBCUniversal’s portfolio to develop custom ad sales solutions on behalf of clients as well as overseeing marketing for NBCUniversal and the company’s cross-platform initiatives including Women at NBCU, Green is Universal and Healthy at NBCU. Previously Banikarim was the chief marketing officer of Univision Communications Inc.

Banikarim also owned and managed her own consulting firm where she provided management and marketing consulting services to a variety of clients, including Time Warner, Deutsche Bank and Bacardi Ltd. Banikarim’s experience also includes roles as publisher at Macmillan Publishing, general manager and marketing director of CitySearch and an account planner in the first integrated marketing solutions group at Turner Broadcasting. She began her marketing career in account management at Young & Rubicam.

Banikarim has a B.A. in political science from Barnard College. She also has an M.B.A. and a master’s in international affairs from Columbia University.