Disney ad sales executive Lisa Valentino departs amid restructuring: Variety

Lisa Valentino, a senior executive at Disney (NYSE:DIS) Advertising Sales, has left the company amid a planned restructuring, Variety reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Valentino served as the executive vice president for client and brand solutions and ran several of the company's data-led initiatives. According to the report, Valentino's departure was a result of a re-alignment of the advertising sales staff.

Having previously served in executive roles at Yahoo, ESPN and Condé Nast, Valentino re-joined Disney (DIS) in 2019. During her prior time at Disney, she served as senior vice president, multi-media sales at ESPN.

"It is unusual to re-align advertising sales executives at this point in the industry calendar. During the “upfront,” a sales market that usually lasts from May through at least mid-summer, TV networks try to sell the bulk of their commercial inventory for their next cycle of programming," the report noted.

Earlier in the year, Amazon (AMZN) snagged Disney (DIS) veteran Jeremy Helfand to lead the push for its streaming business.

In December 2023, Alison Levin left Roku's (ROKU) ad sales department to be president of advertising and partnerships at Comcast's (CMCSA) NBCUniversal.