Twitter's new CEO Linda Yaccarino—everything advertisers need to know

Who is Linda Yaccarino? 

Yaccarino, 60, has had an extensive career shaping the TV advertising landscape, most recently as NBCUniversal's chairman, advertising sales and partnerships. She comes from “a very traditional Italian Catholic family,” she said in a recent interview with Ad Age. She has described herself as one part “contemporary and progressive business person, but the same exact dose of a traditional relationship person.” 

Related: Linda Yaccarino is TV's partnership power broker

Also read: NBCU's new ad leader talks before upfront

Yaccarino’s mother is a first-generation Italian American immigrant and her father, second-generation, balanced a career in the police force while going to night school. She has two sisters, including an identical twin. Yaccarino and her husband have two children of their own, and last year, became grandparents. 

If she wasn’t in the ad world, Yaccarino would run for mayor of New York City, she said earlier this year. “Many people have speculated over time that I would like to run for office,” but she said it was bad timing. 

What was Yaccarino's role at NBCU?  

Yaccarino joined NBCU in 2011 as the head of digital and cable ad sales, before being promoted to president of ad sales in September 2012. She then was elevated to chairman of global advertising and partnerships in October 2020, giving her oversight of a new data strategy unit, local ad sales, regional sports network sales and the strategic initiatives team. 

She is known in the industry for being a tough negotiator, setting the tone for pricing in upfront negotiations. She has also been a proponent for change in the industry; first by bringing the once-siloed divisions of broadcast, cable and digital under one umbrella to streamline business, reducing commercial loads, leaning into ad targeting and audience data, and more recently, helping to shape the future of streaming advertising. 

Prior to NBCU, Yaccarino spent nearly two decades at Turner, where she was behind the company’s “broadcast replacement” initiative, working to position Turner’s suite of cable channels in the marketplace as competitive to broadcast. 

What is Yaccarino's stance on measurement?

One of Yaccarino’s biggest platforms has been the need for measurement upheaval. She has long admonished Nielsen for its inability to keep up with a fragmented viewing landscape. In 2017, Yaccarino rallied top executives from rival networks, media agencies and brands, hosting a summit to sort out the measurement mess. But not many solutions at the time were produced. 

NBCU has been at the forefront of testing alternative measurements in an effort to shift the industry from predominantly relying on Nielsen as a currency. Most recently, NBCU has been part of the efforts to bring the industry together under the so-called Joint Industry Council to set standards, coordinate the collection of streaming data from programmers and certify third-party players to measure streaming audiences in time for the 2024 upfronts.

The future according to Yaccarino lies in identity metrics, declaring “identity is the new currency.”

Look back: Yaccarino expresses concern over Nielsen's Total Content Ratings 

What is Yaccarino's history with social platforms?

Yaccarino hasn’t always been a fan of social platforms. While NBCU has long struck content deals with the likes of Facebook and Twitter, Yaccarino often criticized their measurement practices. During NBCU’s 2017 upfront, she took center stage and admonished: “When it comes to measurement, we don’t grade our own homework,” she said, a direct dig at Facebook. “What the hell is a ‘view’ anyway? Has a ‘like’ ever walked into your store, purchased your product or drove a car out of the dealership?”

What is Yaccarino's relationship with Elon Musk? 

But since Elon Musk took over Twitter last year, Yaccarino has been a vocal supporter of the billionaire leader. During an Ad Age conference in November, Yaccarino said she was “obsessed” with his maneuvers and added that “there’s no replacement for Twitter.” 

“He can learn advertising,” Yaccarino said. “Give me a break, I think we can teach him.

From November: Why Yaccarino is rooting for Musk

What is Yaccarino's connection to Donald Trump?

Yaccarino was named to former President Donald Trump’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, in 2018. 

“Some people thought it was a little controversial because of the administration,” Yaccarino said in a 2022 interview with Ad Age. She pushed back on objections to her joining the council, which every president has had an iteration of, because of her passion for the theme under Trump—sports programming for underprivileged youth. She also noted her qualifications for the job with close relationships to sports leagues and businesses. 

More importantly, Yaccarino said the council introduced her to former NFL player and Texas Representative Scott Turner. Turner started an organization called Community Engagement and Opportunity Council in 2021 with Yaccarino as chairman. A recent program that Yaccarino spoke proudly of was a funded driving school for an underprivileged South Dallas community that recently graduated 30 students, with half going to a local, understaffed truck driving business.

Of course, Trump was also the star of “Celebrity Apprentice,” which aired on NBC during her tenure. 

How has Yaccarino navigated her career being a woman in a male-dominated industry? 

“At least in my own experience, you get used to being a little lonely being one of the very few women in the room. You need to speak louder, work harder, repeat yourself. And quite often invite yourself to meetings or to events,” Yaccarino said during a 2019 roundtable discussion with other female ad sales chief of TV network groups.  

More: Yaccarino and female ad sales executives on rising to the top

During that conversation, Yaccarino recalled when she had her second child, the company that she was working for at the time only did promotions once a year. “It was when I was about to get my first VP stripe. And if you were in good standing, you were there a year, you got made a vice president. Once a year. Every January. So I have my second child, I’m on maternity leave, promotions come out. Well, I’ve got to look at that list again, I’m not on it. I called my boss at the time and I said, ‘What happened?’ ‘Oh, I’m sorry, company policy, if you’re on maternity leave you’re ineligible for a promotion. You have to wait another year.’ When I talk to younger people today, they can’t believe it.” 

Yaccarino also references the book “Drop the Ball,” by Tiffany Dufu. “One of the things she talks about…if there is a job description for a CEO position or senior position, women believe they have to have at least nine of the specific qualifications to even pick up the phone or schedule a meeting to interview. Men, you know how many? Three, and they go, ‘Oh, I’m good. I could learn it. I can talk it.’ Women don't have that confidence. They’re not raised or nurtured in that way because they’re so task-oriented and don’t think, ‘My hard work or natural smarts is going to speak for itself.’”