Cesar R. Conde

Cesar R. Conde

Aspen Institute Trustee, Chairman, NBCUniversal News Group

Cesar Conde was named Chairman of the NBCUniversal News Group in May 2020. In this role, Conde has oversight of NBC News, MSNBC, and CNBC. He reports to Jeff Shell, CEO, NBCUniversal. 

Under Conde’s leadership, the NBCU News Group has made substantial investments in digital and streaming, accelerating its leading position across all platforms. In addition to being the most-watched news organization in the country, it is now the number one digital news organization in the U.S. for the first time in its history. Its streaming network, NBC News NOW, continues to achieve record-breaking viewership numbers, along with significant domestic and international distribution growth. The network expanded its programming lineup in 2021 with a live primetime block and now streams 10 live original hours daily, more than any other news streaming network.

Further, under his tenure, NBCU News Group has become the only news organization to run three major streaming networks with the additional launches of TODAY All Day and MSNBC on Peacock. It also created additional streaming programming, including Peacock’s Dateline 24/7 channel and The Overview, as well as Meet the Press Reports.

Becoming the first Hispanic to lead a major English-language television news organization, Conde gained oversight of NBCU News Group amid one of the most intense and challenging news cycles in recent history. He steered the organization during a global pandemic, an ensuing economic crisis and historic social unrest, which all unfolded against the backdrop of a complex election cycle. 

Immediately after Conde took helm of the NBCU News Group, he boldly launched the Fifty Percent Challenge Initiative, which aspires for its newsrooms to achieve racial, socioeconomic, geographic and perspective diversity over time. At the core of the initiative is the award-winning NBCU Academy, a multiplatform journalism training program for university and community college students, partnering with 45 academic institutions serving historically underrepresented populations.

Previously, Conde was Chairman of NBCU International Group and NBCU Telemundo Enterprises. As Chairman of NBCU International Group, Conde was responsible for the operations and international expansion of NBCUniversal businesses outside of North America. 

While leading Telemundo Enterprises, Conde propelled the Spanish-language network to rank number one for the first time in its history in primetime among key consumer demographics.

Conde joined NBCUniversal in October 2013 as Executive Vice President overseeing NBCU International and NBCU Digital Enterprises. Prior to NBCU, Conde was the President of Univision Networks and served in a variety of senior executive capacities at the company. He is credited with transforming the Spanish-language media company into a leading global, multi-platform media brand.  

Prior to Univision, Conde served as a White House Fellow for Secretary of State Colin L. Powell from 2002–2003. He also worked in the Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Salomon Smith Barney. 

Conde serves on the board of directors of Walmart (NYSE: WMT) and PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP). He is also a Trustee of the Aspen Institute and the Paley Center for Media. Additionally, Conde is a Board Member at the Council on Foreign Relations and a Young Global Leader for the World Economic Forum. He holds a B.A. with honors from Harvard University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.