Will Gonzalez Promoted To Oversee Newly Integrated Data & Research Team Across NBCUniversal

Will Gonzalez has been promoted to EVP & Chief Data Officer at NBCUniversal, where his role will expand to now oversee the research and decision sciences teams across television and streaming.

The move comes during a period of streamlining for the Comcast-owned media giant, which is looking for significant cost savings as linear viewing continues to shift to streaming.

In a memo sent to staff Wednesday, NBCUniversal television and streaming chairman Mark Lazarus explained that the company will be merging research teams —  which include applied analytics, data engineering, and data science — across Peacock as well as the entertainment networks, NBC Sports, and Telemundo.

“With so much content being shared and windowed across our networks and Peacock, this integrated team will allow us to better understand our audiences across platforms, more easily leverage resources that exist within the portfolio, and ultimately support the highest level of decision-making across all parts of our business,” Lazarus said.

In addition to overseeing the newly integrated research team, Gonzalez will continue to lead the Decision Sciences and Consumer Insights teams within direct-to-consumer.

“In the five years he has been at NBCUniversal, Will has done a tremendous job leading a transformation to a more data-informed culture, building tools and capabilities that allow for democratized use of information to empower decision-making,” Lazarus’ memo reads. “Will created the decision sciences function within our Direct-to-Consumer business, enabling us to have a best-in-class understanding of the consumer that is powering Peacock as the fastest-growing U.S. streaming service.”

Gonzalez joined NBCU in 2017 as SVP, Enterprise Business Intelligence. He was promoted to EVP and Chief Data Officer, Direct-to-Consumer, in 2021. Previously, he held positions at Sony and The New York Times.

NBCU has been seeing scattered layoffs in recent days, with departures in ad sales and other divisions. In 2020, the year Peacock launched, the company executed a major restructuring to center its organization on streaming.

Dade Hayes contributed to this report.