Donna Speciale was named president of advertising sales and marketing at Univision, as part of the Hispanic media giant’s reorganization under new management.
Speciale, who most recently oversaw ad sales at WarnerMedia, will be charged with leading Univision’s advertising and marketing business to deliver new ad products and solutions. Speciale left WarnerMedia in July 2019 in the aftershocks of AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner.
As part of the announcement, Univision also named Pierluigi Gazzolo to the newly created role of president and chief transformation officer; Luis Silberwasser, to the newly created role of president of Univision TV Networks Group; c to exec VP of content distribution and partnerships; Adam Shippee to the newly created role of exec VP, corporate development, strategy and transformation; and Amy Tenbrink to exec VP and associate general counsel, revenue/business development.
Univision was acquired by two private-equity firms—ForgeLight and Searchlight Capital Partners—and is being led by Wade Davis, the former chief financial officer of Viacom. This is the first move since the deal closed at the end of the year.
While at WarnerMedia, Speciale had been vocal in her efforts to improve the TV ad experience by focusing on advancing audience targeting and introducing products designed to help marketers boost their ROI. She was also part of the initial team that created OpenAP, the industry consortium designed to help standardize audience buying on TV and make it more comparable to digital buying.
Before joining Turner, Speciale sat on the agency side for two decades, last serving as president of investment, activation and operations at MediaVest, where her client roster included Coca-Cola, Kraft, Mars, Procter & Gamble and Walmart.