Univision Realigns Sales Team Leadership

Univision Communications Inc. (UCI) on the heels of promoting Steve Mandala to president of Advertising Sales and Marketing, announced a new leadership team to manage its growing portfolio of ad-driven platforms. These appointments will maximize efficiencies while heightening partner, regional and local strategic focus.

A look at the Sales leadership team:

Trisha Pray will broaden her role to serve as executive vice president of Sales and Client Development, leading all sales efforts in Chicago, Dallas, Miami, Los Angeles, and other growth regions. She will relocate to Chicago, her hometown, while continuing to report to Mandala.

Pray has served as executive vice president of Network and Cable Sales overseeing the Univision Network and UniMás, as well as Galavisión and other UCI cable networks. Over the past 25 years, Pray has built a successful career and impeccable reputation based on proven success in the national advertising marketplace. A pivotal member of the UCI Ad Sales team for more than 20 years, Pray has helped the Company elevate its efforts and build a best-in-class sales force. Under her leadership, UCI is known in the industry as a solutions oriented partner committed to working closely with marketers .

Jorge Daboub is being promoted to executive vice president of Local Media Sales. He will report to both Mandala and John Eck, Chief Local Media Officer.

In his new role, Daboub will lead the sales team for all of television, radio and digital properties in Local Media, including national and local sales. With over 20 years of marketing and sales experience with expertise in the U.S. Hispanic consumer, Daboub will maximize the power of the UCI brand.

Jack Randall is being promoted to executive vice president of Business Development. He will continue to report to Mandala.

In his new role, Randall will oversee all Business Development function for UCI while leading a team of executives who help clients quantify, activate and optimize growth marketing to the Hispanic consumer in the United States. Prior to joining UCI, he held sales roles with Fox Sports and United Stations Radio Networks in both New York and Los Angeles.

John Kozack is being promoted to senior vice president overseeing New York Network and Digital Sales. He will report directly to John Kelly.

Kozack played an integral part in building relationships with key agencies, which has continued to help UCI gain market share. Prior to his promotion, Kozack served as vice president of Network Sales for Univision Network since 2003.  He previously was an account executive for FOX Cable Sports and a vice president/group supervisor at The Media Edge where he was responsible for all aspects of network buying for certain accounts while managing a group of 10.

John Kelly will expand his role from executive vice president overseeing Digital and News Sales to include oversight of the New York Network Sales team. He will continue to report to Mandala.

Kelly continues to be responsible for helping brands and marketers create non-traditional solutions to connect with the powerful and growing segment of Hispanic America. He is well-known for his commitment to delivering consistent sales growth with digital innovations. With more than a dozen years of experience in executive sales leadership, he previously worked at NBC Universal and spent his first four years as senior vice president and then as executive vice president at CNBC. While there, he also created and led the Innovation Sales Group.

Carlos Deschapelles will continue to lead the growing sports portfolio as executive vice president, which includes sports cable network, UDN.  He will continue to report to Mandala.

As part of his purview, Deschapelles will be responsible for all sports sales across UCI’s expanding portfolio of sports properties and platforms, including Network TV, Radio and Univision Digital, which includes online and mobile—in addition to Univision Deportes Network (UDN), the No. 1 Spanish-language sports network, which launched in 2012. With a distinguished 30-year career at UCI across different sales leadership capacities, Deschapelles brings a wealth of invaluable experience to his role. Previous roles at UCI include senior vice president of Network Sales, overseeing the Company’s Network TV business in the New York, Miami, Dallas, and Los Angeles offices. He also served as senior vice president of Network Sales for UniMás, where he was responsible for all the network’s sales and marketing activities.

Said Mandala, “This is a very exciting time for Univision fueled by new client needs, a rapidly-evolving media landscape and increased competition from external sources. I am confident that through their efforts, hard work and dedication, this group of talented individuals will continue to deliver innovative, action-driven solutions for our partners. All of them are respected media industry veterans who are widely regarded as strong leaders and strategic thinkers, and there is no better group of executives to collaborate and execute gracefully on behalf of UCI with some of our major agencies, which represent some of the biggest brands.”