Roku veteran Kristina Shepard is joining NBCUniversal in the newly created position of EVP, Streaming and Performance Sales and Partnerships.
As the leader of a newly formed team, Shepard will bring together key sales verticals including performance, small-medium business growth and all major East Coast independent agencies. She will also forge horizontal partnerships spanning streaming, programmatic, retail media, social and the company’s FAST networks. Her new group will focus on demand diversification and the client-wide adoption of digital partnerships.
NBCU is heading into a consequential corridor on the sales front, with the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live next year, followed soon after by the Winter Olympics in Italy. Telemundo also has Spanish-language rights to the FIFA World Cup, which will be contested in the summer of 2026 in sites across North America.
“Kristina has an exceptional track record in building and growing new businesses across programmatic, SMB and digital enterprises,” said Alison Levin, President of Advertising and Partnerships, to whom Shepard will report. “She has seamlessly led a multi-billion-dollar streaming operation and has cultivated extensive client relationships that will elevate NBCUniversal’s position in the CTV landscape and expand our aperture in critical emerging workstreams. As the company approaches two of its most influential years in television history, it will be essential for us to continue to diversify our revenue, and Kristina is the perfect person to steer us into that future.”
Shepard was previously VP of Global Advertising Sales and Partnerships at Roku, where she oversaw the company’s global ad revenue, including enterprise partnerships and emerging media and entertainment sales. She helped develop new relationships and partnerships with clients and agencies who went on to become key partners with Roku. Prior to Roku, Shepard worked in mobile ad tech.
“NBCUniversal has set the gold-standard for combining premium content with world class innovation against a backdrop of seismic change in the industry,” Shepard said. “What the team has built so far is extraordinary, and as technology continues to influence media and advertising, I cannot wait to be on the front lines of the most exciting growth areas of our business. Together, we have a real opportunity to make television a tangible, performant solution for marketers of all sizes.”
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