Linda Yaccarino Exits NBCUniversal, Mark Marshall Named Interim Ad Sales Chief

UPDATE: Yaccarino’s appointment as Twitter CEO was made official on Friday afternoon.

PREVIOUSLY: Hours before Linda Yaccarino was named Twitter CEO, her time at NBCUniversal has officially ended. 

The longtime ad sales chief—NBCUniversal’s chairman of global advertising and partnerships—has departed the company “effective immediately,” NBCUniversal announced Friday morning. 

Mark Marshall, currently president, advertising sales and client partnerships, has been named interim chairman of NBCUniversal’s advertising and partnerships group. He will report to Mark Lazarus, chairman, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming.

Yaccarino’s departure—the morning after news broke that she was in talks to take over for Elon Musk as Twitter’s next CEO—comes just three days before she was set to take the stage to lead NBCUniversal’s upfront week presentation Monday morning at Radio City Music Hall. Hours later, Musk tweeted that Yaccarino will indeed be Twitter CEO, and “will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology.”

It upends NBCU’s upfront plans, though Marshall was already set to lead negotiations, after Yaccarino restructured her ad sales team in January, giving Marshall an elevated role, following the exit of ad sales president Laura Molen.

“It has been an absolute honor to be part of Comcast NBCUniversal and lead the most incredible team. We’ve transformed our company and the entire industry—and I am so proud of what we’ve accomplished together, and grateful to my colleagues and mentors, especially [Comcast CEO] Brian Roberts, [Comcast president] Mike Cavanagh and the entire NBCU leadership team,” said Yaccarino in a statement. 

Cavanagh said in a statement: “We are grateful for Linda Yaccarino’s leadership of NBCUniversal’s advertising sales business, and for the innovative team and platform she has built. Linda has made countless contributions to the company during her 12-year tenure, and we wish her the best.”

There was still no official word about Yaccarino taking over as Twitter CEO. Earlier on Thursday, Musk—who bought the social media platform last October and two months later vowed to step down as Twitter CEO when he found “someone foolish enough to take the job”—indicated that he had settled on a replacement. 

He tweeted, “Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks! My role will transition to being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software & sysops.”

Yaccarino has been a public advocate for Musk’s ownership of Twitter since the billionaire bought the platform in October. The duo appeared onstage together in April during the inaugural Possible marketing event in Miami for a keynote around “Twitter 2.0.”

NBCUniversal has also expanded its Twitter partnership under Musk. Twitter did not put on an official NewFronts advertising event this year, as it had in past years. But the company held a smaller presentation during the week for clients, and announced expanded Olympics and Paralympics partnerships with NBCUniversal around the 2024 Paris Summer Games. 

Yaccarino has long been one of advertising’s most dynamic forces. She joined NBCUniversal in 2011 after spending two decades at Turner. Initially, she was in charge of cable and digital sales, but within two years was elevated to head up all the cable and broadcast networks under a single portfolio—a then-revolutionary shake-up that was eventually adopted by almost all of her competitors.

As Twitter CEO, Yaccarino will be tasked with helping restore advertiser faith in a platform that has grown increasingly destabilized since Musk’s rocky takeover. According to a Bloomberg report, Twitter advertising dollars have plummeted 89% since Musk bought the platform and revenue dropped by half.

If anyone can help restore advertiser confidence in Twitter, it will likely be Yaccarino. Longtime advertising industry vet Lou Paskalis tweeted that Yaccarino “would be my first choice, and my only choice, to save the platform from the hands of its owner.”

Yaccarino is the second major NBCUniversal exec to depart the company in the last month. CEO Jeff Shell was fired in April following what was described as “an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company.” 

More upfront week tumult

The Yaccarino news is the latest shakeup in what is shaping up to be a tumultuous upfront week. Wednesday night, Netflix shifted to an all-virtual upfront week presentation after hearing of the WGA’s planned protest during its May 17 event.

NBCUniversal was among the upfront week presenters who told Adweek on Thursday they would be moving forward with in-person events despite the possibility of picketers.  

Marshall told Adweek earlier this week that “NBCU will have an extremely powerful upfront show and will still have great talent participating.”