Elisabeth Sami
Senior Vice President, Global Business Development, CNBC
Responsible for driving CNBC’s digital strategy, Sami led the launch of CNBC.com in 2007 by executing several key transactions, which helped the site to become the fastest growing business and financial news site and reach profitability within two years of launch. She closed key strategic online and mobile ad sales partnerships with MSN and led distribution partnerships with Yahoo Finance and AOL as well as strategic cross-platform content agreements with The New York Times and Linked In.
Under Sami’s leadership, CNBC further extended its reach to new platforms including satellite radio through Sirius and XM and more recently continued to diversify the business through the launch of new index and newsletter business lines.
Before joining CNBC, Sami held various positions at NBC since joining in 1997. Most recently she served as Vice President of Business Development for NBC Universal where she was responsible for acquiring a cable channel in Germany and restructuring the MSNBC Cable joint venture with Microsoft. Sami also served on the MSNBC.com Board of Directors from 2003 until 2008. Prior to that, Sami worked for NBC Digital Media Group where she identified private equity investments, managed NBC’s investment portfolio and negotiated strategic partnerships for the company. She also led transactions in video, publishing and consumer products while holding key business development positions at NBC West Coast and Cable.
Before joining NBC, Sami was Vice President of International Business Development at Discovery Communications, Inc. where she developed the business plans for Discovery Asia and Latin America. She was part of the Discovery Asia launch team and spent three years running business development for Discovery Asia in Hong Kong. Sami began her career at the investment consulting firm, The Bancroft Group, where she provided financial and strategic advice to U.S. companies investing in Central and Eastern Europe.
Sami received a graduate degree in international affairs from Stockholm University and holds a bachelor’s degree from The University of Iowa. She lives in New York City with her husband and daughter.
