Linda Yaccarino
Linda Yaccarino
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Linda Yaccarino

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Linda Yaccarino

Linda Yaccarino (born December 21, 1963) is an American business executive. She served as chief executive officer (CEO) of X Corp from 2023 to 2025 and as chairman of global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal from 2011 to 2023. Since 2025, she is the CEO of telehealth company, eMed.

Yaccarino grew up in Deer Park, New York, where her father was an assistant chief of police, and her mother was a civil servant. Yaccarino has two sisters; one is her twin. She graduated from Pennsylvania State University's Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications with a bachelor's degree in telecommunications in 1985.

Yaccarino worked at Turner Entertainment for 15 years, becoming executive vice president and chief operating officer. She is credited with modernizing the company's ad sales strategies. At Turner, she negotiated ad deals on the reboot of Conan O'Brien's late night comedy show.

Yaccarino joined NBCUniversal in October 2011, hired by then-CEO Steve Burke. As the head of NBCUniversal's advertising sales, she led a department of over 2,000 people, and played a key role in the launch of the Peacock streaming service. When Burke began planning stepping down as CEO, Yaccarino had made a bid to be his successor, but she was not picked. Though praised by advertisers and acknowledged as a hardworking saleswoman, associates from her time at NBCUniversal said her tenure was "marked by instability," with multiple reorganizations creating a decline in the culture of the department.

Yaccarino joined the Ad Council in 2014. Yaccarino assumed the position of chair of the Ad Council's board of directors in January 2021, for a term that ran until June 30, 2022. As chair, Yaccarino partnered with the Biden administration in 2021 to create a COVID-19 vaccination campaign that featured Pope Francis.

In 2018, President Donald Trump appointed her to the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition.

While at NBCUniversal, advertising discussions with Netflix led to Netflix suggesting she take a job running its ad sales, but it did not go far and inspired her to take a career change, according to two of her former colleagues.

Yaccarino had long expressed an interest in Twitter, and she had been a part of the company's "Influence Council", which had advertisers advise the company on brand deals. On three occasions while at NBCUniversal, Yaccarino proposed that Comcast executives buy Twitter outright. Early conversations around a potential $3 billion offer never resulted in a deal. Following Elon Musk's acquisition, Yaccarino pledged to him that NBCUniversal would continue advertising on the social network, according to people familiar with conversations.

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