Karen Babcock is Vice President, Strategy, Partnerships & Supply for Comcast Advertising, a global leader in media, technology, and advertising that fosters powerful connections between brands and their audiences as well as among publishers, distributors, MVPDs, agencies, and other industry players. In her current role, Karen plays a pivotal part in defining the unique value proposition of Comcast Advertising, ensuring it remains competitive and indispensable to clients and the greater marketplace across strategy, partnerships, and supply. She leads several multifaceted teams that seamlessly integrate daily operations with strategic future planning. Under her leadership, the Yield Team connects directly with media sales and operations, managing sales opportunities, pricing, inventory, and analytics. The Affiliate Partnerships Team maximizes long-standing relationships with local MVPDs to diversify offerings and expand coverage beyond Comcast’s footprint. The Supply Strategy & Activation Team identifies industry opportunities and enhances our market presence. The Comcast Advertising Partnerships Team ensures visibility into partner conversations to drive the right narrative and economics. Lastly, the Comcast Advertising Strategy Team integrates all efforts to guide future actions and strategies for Comcast Advertising, ensuring proactive planning and seamless integration. Together, Karen's organization drives innovation and growth, creating a cohesive and forward-thinking environment. Her leadership extends to shaping a multi-year vision, advancing live linear capabilities, and spearheading innovation in attribution and privacy mitigation to ensure future revenue growth. Previously, Karen was responsible for creating and connecting the vision of Comcast Advertising sales agents, customers, and clients to the premium, curated inventory that Comcast has to offer to the advertising marketplace – regardless of the platform. She partnered with Effectv – which is now part of Media Solutions and operating under the Comcast Advertising brand – and FreeWheel teams to drive the activation of Comcast’s trusted premium video inventory across the ecosystem in an objective and productive way. Additionally, Karen has led a team of yield and pricing professionals who served both FreeWheel and Effectv’s sales and operations teams with inventory and pricing analytics to drive business results for Comcast and its clients. She has also managed a strategic planning team that creates informed, data-driven media plans for top clients and verticals, supporting more than 50% of the revenue generated by Effectv. Karen’s journey within Comcast started in 2011 when she joined Comcast as Manager, Revenue Operations for the former Comcast Interactive Media, managing digital yield on Comcast’s flagship website, comcast.net. In 2012, she shifted into Effectv and eventually took on an expanded role of evaluating pricing and inventory across all media that Effectv had to offer. Karen then rose to her next role over the next eight years, defining what the future of yield management should look like for a media organization that was going through growth and tremendous change in the industry. Throughout her tenure at Comcast, Karen has been passionate about creating teams that are people focused. For instance, she developed a program for individual contributors to grow their skillsets beyond day-to-day interactions, entitled “The Road to the Influential Business Advisor,” to ensure that at all levels of the organization, yield was an integral part of the business dialogue. She also leads with an “industry first” mentality to rise the tide for all ships as the company responds to the ever-changing landscape of both viewers and advertisers. Prior to Comcast, Karen held multiple financial roles within Johnson & Johnson and graduated from the company’s competitive Financial Leadership Development Program. Karen also participated in Women in Cable Telecommunications’ (WICT) Rising Leader Program and Betsy Magness Leadership Cohort, the Half the Sky Leadership Institute, as well as Comcast’s Women in Leadership program. She is the current executive advisor for InLeadership program, the evolution of Women in Leadership. She is the founder of The Dax Pact, a nonprofit foundation created in memory of her son, with a mission to fund scholarships, daycares, and camps – bringing hope and happiness to countless families to remind them of the joy in everyday life, across the U.S. Karen is a recognized thought leader in the advertising industry. She speaks at premier industry events, including the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, the Stream TV Summit and she participates in media interviews such as Marketecture’s Advertising Forum podcast and Beet.TV. Karen graduated from The Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Science in finance. She resides in the suburbs of Philadelphia with her family.
