Jeff Shell stepped down as CEO of NBCUniversal Sunday after admitting to having an “inappropriate relationship” with a girl at the corporate, the company mother Comcast announced.
“Today is my last day as CEO of NBCUniversal. I had an inappropriate relationship with a girl in the corporate, which I deeply regret. I’m truly sorry to have let down my colleagues at Comcast and NBCUniversal, they’re essentially the most talented people within the business and it has been a privilege to work with them for the last 19 years,” said Shell. statement.
Comcast hired an outside counsel to start an investigation after the criticism was filed. The criticism was filed by a girl with whom Shell said he had an “improper relationship”, in accordance with people conversant in the matter. They declined to be named as a consequence of the sensitive nature of the events.
The corporate’s email said the Shell team would report back to Comcast CEO Mike Cavanagh. The corporate has not held talks or sought a alternative and will not be planning to achieve this immediately, said an individual near the matter. Shell, like other leaders at NBCUniversal, has been reporting to Cavanagh for a while now and knows the business well, the person said.
“We’re disenchanted to share this news with you. We built this company on a culture of integrity. Nothing is more essential than how we treat one another. It’s best to count in your leaders to create a secure and respectful workplace. When our rules and policies are broken, we’ll at all times act quickly to take appropriate motion, as we’ve got done here,” Cavanagh and Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said in a separate statement Sunday.
Roberts will even be more involved within the NBCUniversal business together with Cavanagh, the person said.
Shell, who’s married, took over as CEO of NBCUniversal at January 2020. He oversaw the corporate’s theme parks, streaming service Peacock, sports production, a bunch of television stations, and entertainment and news television networks comparable to NBC News.
Much of his time as CEO has been shaped by the Covid pandemic, which has forced the US and far of the world to shut down weeks for a recent position. During this time, theme parks and movie theaters closed, and the entertainment industry was turned the wrong way up as film and tv production shut down.
Shell, who replaced Steve Burke, sparked the mid-2020 launch of Peacock, NBCUniversal’s answer to the streaming wars. While Peacock was developed under Burke’s direction, the streaming service grew and added more subscribers and content with Shell on the helm.
Peacock’s losses affected NBCUniversal’s overall operations. In the course of the company’s recent earnings call, Cavanagh said Peacock’s 2022 losses were consistent with his earlier forecast of $2.5 billion. Comcast said it expects Peacock’s losses to be around $2 billion by 2023. Comcast is as a consequence of release its earnings report on Thursday. Comcast shares are up about 8% this 12 months.
Just months after taking on as CEO, Shell transformed NBCUniversal’s business and broke up fiefdoms within the TV segment, aiming to bring streaming and traditional TV closer together.
As a part of the restructuring, there have been layoffs expected to affect lower than 10% of the then 35,000 full-time employees. Cuts were made across all NBCUniversal business segments.
NBCUniversal also evaluated its portfolio of cable TV networks under Shell. In 2021, the corporate shut down NBC Sports, moving most of its sports programming to USA Network and Peacock. The Peacock has also turn out to be the house of the Olympic Games streaming.
At the identical time, longtime NBCUniversal executive Ron Meyer left the corporate after being exposed, he was threatened with extortion due to a personal settlement he made with a girl after an extramarital affair.
On the time, Shell informed employees of Meyer’s departure, saying, “Ron Meyer has informed NBCUniversal that he has acted in a way that we don’t consider is consistent with our company’s policies or values.”
Through the years, Shell has risen through the ranks of Comcast and NBCUniversal.
One in every of his earliest roles was as president of Comcast’s programming group, where he managed national and regional television networks including E! He also previously served as president of NBCUniversal International and later president of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group from 2013 to 2019. Prior to taking the helm as CEO of Shell, he was president of NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment.
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.