Salil Mehta was named to the newly created position of Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of NBCUniversal’s Entertainment & Digital Networks and Integrated Media division (E&DN/IM) in April 2011. For the past three years, Mehta served as President, Business Operations, Strategy and Development for NBCUniversal, where he was responsible for the company’s strategic agenda, business development, and digital initiatives. He also was a key player in NBCUniversal’s integration with Comcast.
As Chief Operating Office and Chief Financial Officer of E&DN/IM, Mehta oversees all day-to-day operations, finance, legal and business affairs, business development and strategic planning for E&DN/IM’s entire portfolio which includes Telemundo, Bravo Media, mun2, Oxygen Media, Style, and the digital properties DailyCandy, Fandango, and Television Without Pity. He also has direct oversight of our partially-owned cable networks Sprout and TV One.
Mehta works directly with each of the entertainment and digital brand leaders to help architect growth strategies for their businesses. As Chief Operating Office and Chief Financial Officer, he is charged with the mandate to further drive revenue across the entire E&DN/IM division, working directly with both the advertising and distribution sales leaders.
At NBCUniversal, Mehta managed negotiations for NBCUniversal’s purchase of The Weather Channel; played a key role in the creation of A&E Television Networks, a merger of A&E and Lifetime in which NBCUniversal has an interest; as well as the sale of the company’s Sundance Channel unit to Rainbow Media Holdings.
Previously, Mehta served as Executive Vice President of ESPN Enterprises Inc., with general management responsibilities for all of ESPN’s non-broadcasting businesses including new media, broadband, mobile, publishing and consumer product businesses. Before that, Mehta was Executive Vice President, Corporate Business Development and Strategic Planning for the Walt Disney Company, where he had lead responsibility for the development and launch of new businesses and played a senior role in the development of Disney’s long-term growth strategies and mergers and acquisitions plans. Mehta joined Disney in 1994 as Manager, Corporate Strategic Planning.
Mehta received his M.B.A. in finance from the Wharton School, earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in international relations from Brown University, and, as a Fulbright Scholar, studied international political economy at the Delhi School of Economics.