NBCUniversal Restructures Ad Exec Ranks; Sports Vet And Olympics Chief Dan Lovinger Among Staffers Exiting

deadline.com:

Dan Lovinger, who recently spearheaded NBCUniversal‘s advertising bonanza at the Paris Olympics, is among a handful of employees exiting the company amid a broad restructuring of its ad exec ranks.

The overhaul was announced Monday by Alison Levin, President of Advertising and Partnerships, who joined NBCU last December after nearly nine years at Roku. (Read her full memo below.) Along with the departures of some staffers, Levin also signaled plans to hire some new workers in emerging business areas.

She will address the changes in a virtual all-hands meeting on Tuesday. Of the approach to sports, Levin wrote, “This expanded team, which will now include all Olympic sales as well as our Sports vertical, will leverage a unified strategy across all sports assets to maximize revenue from our properties and will be led by Peter Lazarus.” In 2022, Lazarus was promoted to the lead role overseeing sports advertising, while Lovinger was shifted into an Olympics-centric post.

His title was President, Olympic and Paralympic Sales. Lovinger joined NBCU in 2011 after prior exec stints at MTV Networks, CNBC and Turner Broadcasting. “This new structure means we are also saying goodbye to some of our longtime colleagues and friends,” Levin wrote. “These decisions are never easy, and I want to thank those leaders for their dedication and many contributions to NBCUniversal.