Mark Lukasiewicz

Mark Lukasiewicz was named Senior Vice President of NBC News Specials in July 2011, after two years as Vice President of Specials and Digital Media.

The NBC News Specials portfolio encompasses all special news productions on NBC News and MSNBC Cable, including political debates, conventions, and elections; major planned news events and long-form specials; and live breaking news reports. Over the past several years, the Specials unit has taken on an increasing number of projects and has spearheaded cross-platform coverage that spans the networks of NBCUniversal and their online and mobile entities.

Lukasiewicz executive produced three NBC News Republican Candidate Debates in 2011 and 2012, in Florida, New Hampshire, and at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.  He also supervised NBCUniversal’s multi-network, multi-platform coverage of the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in April 2011, which drew over 52 million viewers across the networks of NBCUniversal, over 40 million viewers on NBC News, and over 200,000 mobile app downloads. He also produced NBC’s live six-hour “Decision 2010″ election special, and served as executive-in-charge of NBC’s “Education Nation” summit (a three-day conference and multi-media event on education reform issues) at Rockefeller Plaza in September 2010 and September 2011.

He was also executive producer of NBC News’ top-rated and Emmy-Award-winning two-hour special “Inside the Obama White House” with Brian Williams in June 2009 as well as “Taking the Hill: Inside Congress” in July 2011.  Other cross-platform production credits include: MSNBC’s live election night coverage in 2008; inauguration coverage in 2009; NBC’s live coverage of the death and funeral of Senator Edward Kennedy in 2009; NBC’s critically acclaimed coverage of the war in Iraq; “America Remembers” — a Special Presentation on the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks; Emmy-Award winning coverage of the death and funeral of Ronald Reagan;  “Democracy Plaza” in 2004; and “Humanity Plaza” in 2005.  Since joining NBC News, Lukasiewicz has created more than one hundred hours of live and taped programming for NBC, MSNBC and CNBC.

Lukasiewicz joined NBC News as Executive Producer, Special Projects in October 2000.  In 2003, he was given added responsibility as Executive Producer of the NBC News Specials Unit and Executive Producer of Decision 2004 coverage.  In 2006, he was named NBC News Vice President of Digital Media and spearheaded a deep editorial integration between the news division’s television and digital properties.  Lukasiewicz also negotiated a variety of partnerships between NBCNews.com, NBC News, and sites such as NYT.com, National Journal and MySpace.  In 2008, the award-winning NBCNews.com became the nation’s most visited news and information website, surpassing CNN.com and Yahoo! News and outpacing the websites of ABC News, CBS News and Fox News combined. In June 2009, Lukasiewicz took on added responsibilities in the dual role of Vice President, NBC News Specials and Digital Media.

Prior to joining NBC News, Lukasiewicz was at ABC News, where he served as producer and senior producer of “Prime Time Live,” senior producer and domestic editor of “World News Tonight with Peter Jennings,” and executive producer of “Good Morning America.” Also while at ABC, Lukasiewicz was involved in numerous development projects for broadcast, cable and the internet, involving ABC News, ABCNews.com, the ABC Television Network and the Disney/ABC Cable networks.

Prior to joining ABC News, Lukasiewicz was a producer and senior editor for “The Journal,” the flagship current affairs broadcast of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC-TV). He began his career as an economics and business reporter and columnist for the Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper and its “Report on Business” section.

Lukasiewicz is a nine-time Emmy Award winner. Other awards include: the grand prize of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Journalism Awards; the University of Georgia’s Peabody Award; the Gold Hugo of the Chicago International Film Festival; The “Chris” Award of the Columbus International Film and Video Festival; The Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for Outstanding Investigative Reporting; the Citation of Excellence of the Overseas Press Club; and the Award of the National Association of Black Journalists.

Lukasiewicz received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and political science from the University of Toronto. He lives in Westchester County, New York, with his wife, attorney Lori Harris, and their three children.