After six years as head of corporate communications, NBCUniversal veteran Hilary Smith will shift to a new post leading the company’s corporate social responsibility efforts.
Smith will continue to oversee NBCU’s corporate communications for the near term until a successor is named. She already steered NBCU’s social impact programs. The decision to expand the role of corporate social responsibility into a full-time job is a sign of NBCUniversal’s heightened focus on such issues. Parent company Comcast has made a three-year, $100 million pledge to support social justice issues, which gives Smith a big budget for planning good works, company volunteer efforts and general philanthropy.
Adam Miller, NBCU’s executive vice president and Comcast’s chief administrative officer, said in a staff memo announcing the promotion that Smith’s track record over the past few years made her the natural choice.
“Through our corporate social impact campaign, ‘NBCUnites,’ we currently have 40 non-profit partners and have engaged over 24,000 employee volunteers. In 2020 and 2021, we added 12 new partners — thanks in large part to additional money from Comcast’s $100 million 3-year social justice-focused pledge,” Miller wrote. “Hilary and her team are focusing on deepening our non-profit partnerships to develop pipeline programs to place their constituents into jobs at NBCU. We will also continue to expand the company’s support for minority-led non-profit organizations. Additionally, we are broadening opportunities for our employees to do skills-based pro bono work and play a larger role in helping to direct some of our charitable funding.”
Smith has spent 20-plus years with NBC. She was promoted to head corporate communications in late 2015. Before that, she spent two years as head of PR for USA Network. She’s held other PR posts within NBCUniversal, including a previous stint in corporate communications and a hitch at NBC News as manager of PR for “Dateline.”
“It is very gratifying to work for a company where Corporate Social Responsibility is a top priority,” Smith said. “I feel incredibly lucky to be granted this opportunity to help make an impact in our communities and provide meaningful ways for NBCU employees to give back.”
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