Mark Marshall has been named chairman of global advertising and partnerships for NBCUniversal. Marshall, who has served as the interim chairman since May following Linda Yaccarino’s exit, will start in this new role immediately.
He will report directly to Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group and be based in New York.
“Mark stepped into this role on an interim basis at one of the most critical times of year for the ad sales business, and over the past three months he has more than proven himself to be the leader NBCU needs to guide this team into the future,” Lazarus said. “Mark’s relationships are second to none, and coupled with his transformative vision, I have no doubt that under his leadership we will continue to reinvent and innovate the sales business while super-serving our clients and partners.”
In his role as interim chairman, Marshall led his team through an upfront and closed this year’s negotiations. Total cash commitments were roughly in line with those made last year, which was NBCUniversal’s highest-grossing upfront to date.
Prior to serving as chairman, Marshall was president of advertising sales and partnerships for NBCU, a role he held since 2018. In this position, Marshall oversaw advertising sales initiatives for NBC Broadcast Entertainment, NBC Sports, advanced advertising sales and client partnerships. Before that, Marshall served as executive vice president for entertainment advertising sales group, a job that required him to oversee advertising sales for NBC Entertainment, USA, Syfy and WWE.
In May of this year, Yaccarino departed from NBCUniversal to accept the role of CEO of X, the company formerly known as Twitter. The career shift happened just three days before NBCU’s upfronts, one of the biggest days of the year for TV executives in the advertising space. At the time, Yaccarino’s abrupt exit caused shockwaves throughout the industry and caused many to wonder what exactly was going on within the Comcast-owned company.
“Linda and I’ve worked together for many, many years here at NBC and in our time in sales at Turner, and for her many contributions and for building an excellent team here, we want to thank her and wish her well,” Lazarus said at the time during NBCU’s upfront presentation.
