NBC Names Women's Advisory Board Members

BURBANK, CA - The Women at NBCU advisory board, an NBC Universal think tank on female trends and ways to effectively market to women, will name its eight new top media, marketing and entertainment industry executives today.

New board members include:

• Suzanne Gluck, co-head of William Morris Endeavor Entertainment’s Worldwide Literary Department.

• Debra Martin Chase, CEO and President of Martin Chase Productions, a Walt Disney Co. affiliate.

• Anne Finucane, Global Strategy and Marketing Officer, Bank of America.

• Gail Simmons, director of special projects, Food & Wine Magazine.

• Monica Gadsby, CEO of Multicultural and Latin America at Starcom MediaVest Group.

• Laurie M. Tisch, President of the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, a foundation established to enable New Yorkers to break down the barriers to access.

• Lisa Gersh, President of Strategic Initiatives and Managing Director of The Weather Channel Companies for NBCU, and co-founder and former COO of Oxygen Media.

• Linda Boff, Global Director of Marketing Communications and Digital at General Electric.

The new board members will be announced by Lauren Zalaznick, President of NBC Universal Women & Lifestyle Entertainment Networks, at the Women at NBCU’s “Power of the Purse” breakfast, with a keynote by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The 24-member board was formed in January 2009 and includes a cross-section of professional women from publishing, marketing, banking, media, corporate and other backgrounds. The group at large was formed in May 2008 and includes clients Pepsi, Procter & Gamble, General Mills and Kodak.

Zalaznick told TheWrap that the board was formed as an adjunct to Women at NBCU to “add a more external focus” and to “bring some real outside voices to the table, to bring in outside insights and knowledge of how the marketplace works.”

“As a media company, we believe it’s important to pull in expertise from every industry,” Zalaznick adds.

She said the discussions among the current board members led to the unveiling on Monday of the “Women at NBCU Brand Power Index,” which monthly will track and announce 25 brands that are most important to women.

The index is based on a compilation of online search data from ComScore, social media buzz data from New Media Strategies, and person-to-person conversations tracked by Keller Faye.

The top consumer brands for the month of August, according to the index, are Wal-Mart, Target, Verizon, Ebay, AT&T, Coca-Cola, Bank of America, Ford, Amazon.com, Pepsi, McDonalds, Sprint, Dell Computers, Hewlett Packard, Dish Network, Comcast, Cap, Toyota, Sears, Netflix, Kohl’s, iPhone, Microsoft, Well Fargo and Home Depot in that order.