Univision’s Cesar Conde leaves for big role at rival NBCUniversal

Univision’s networks President Cesar Conde is making a dramatic career crossover, leaving the Spanish-language media giant to accept a huge new role running international operations at rival NBCUniversal.

On Friday, Conde was named NBCUniversal executive vice president in charge of international business.

Conde, a polished 39-year-old business executive, got his start in politics. He was a former White House fellow working with Secretary of State Colin Powell during President George W. Bush’s administration.

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Now, Conde will report to NBCUniversal Chief Executive Steve Burke.

Conde spent 10 years at Univision, overseeing its networks business from the company’s west Miami complex.

At NBCUniversal, he will focus “on business development, strategic priorities and special business projects across the NBCUniversal portfolio of assets,” NBCUniversal said in a statement.

Kevin MacLellan, who became chairman of the international operations for NBCUniversal earlier this week, will report to Conde. MacLellan, who is based in London, was named to replace Jeff Shell, who has moved back to Los Angeles to take over Universal Pictures in a dramatic studio shake-up.

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NBCUniversal carved out a new job for Conde.

“His experience leading multiple domestic and international businesses will be instrumental in maximizing all the opportunities to grow our portfolio,” Burke said in a prepared statement.

Conde, who was a holdover from the previous Univision management team, was based at Univision’s Miami network headquarters. He received his business degree from Harvard University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Univision on Friday quickly named three top operational executives to assume some of Conde’s duties, which cut out a layer of management.

Alberto Ciurana, who has maintained a high profile at Univision since he joined the company last year as its top programming executive, now will report directly to Univision Chief Executive Randy Falco.

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The move gives Ciurana, Univision’s president of programming and content, even more sway within the media company.

Ciurana previously ran programming at Mexico’s entertainment giant, Grupo Televisa, which has an ownership stake in Univision.

Isaac Lee, president of Univision News, and Juan Carlos Rodriguez, president of Univision Sports, also now will report to Falco.

Lee is overseeing the development of the soon-to-be launched cable channel Fusion, a joint venture with ABC News. The channel is expected to launch at the end of October.

In an email to Univision staff, Falco called the trio “three of the finest executives in the business.”

“We are hitting high marks in our performance across all divisions of the company,” Falco said in the email. “With this new structure, we will be able to act with more speed and agility to seize the significant growth opportunities in front of us and continue our company-wide expansion efforts.”

Falco now has 13 executives directly reporting to him.

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Follow Meg James on Twitter: @MegJamesLAT