Chris McCarthy Sets ViacomCBS Leadership Team for Entertainment & Youth Division

By Cynthia Littleton

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – ViacomCBS’ senior leadership ranks are coming into sharper focus as Chris McCarthy, head of the sprawling Entertainment and Youth wing has solidified his senior leadership team.

A number of executives closely associated with McCarthy are gaining additional responsibilities, including programming maven Nina Diaz, MTV chief marketing officer Jacqueline Parkes and PR chief Liza Burnett Fefferman.

At the same time, Steve Albani, a 23-year veteran of Comedy Central’s PR department, and Mike Greco, MTV’s exec VP of content strategy and business planning, are departing their posts amid the restructuring. Josh Line, exec VP of marketing and creative for Comedy Central, TV Land and Paramount Network, is shifting to a new role, said.

McCarthy called his department leaders “exceptional and seasoned executives, with whom I am honored to be working alongside to harness our full collective strength and maximize our full creative potential” in a note to staffers on Tuesday.

The restructuring has been a process of sorting through responsibilities and oversight as multiple brands now are coming under one roof. The Entertainment & Youth division houses nine cable brands — MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, CMT, TV Land, Logo, Paramount Network, Pop TV and Smithsonian Channel — plus a number of content production entities.

Per McCarthy, the leadership team encompasses:

• Brianna Cayo-Cotter, who oversees Social Impact teams as senior VP
• Nina L. Diaz, who takes on an expanded role as president of content and chief creative officer
• Keyes Hill-Edgar takes on the newly created role of chief operating officer.
• Liza Burnett Fefferman is promoted to exec VP of communications. She will also co-head MTV Documentary Films with Diaz.
• Keri Panichi Flint will lead the Entertainment & Youth production management group.
• Tanya Giles expands her general manager role to include head of content strategy and programming,
• Jacqueline Parkes broadens her role as chief marketing officer and head of digital studios. She will oversee all consumer event execution.
• Laurel Weir heads the Research and Insights team.
• Barbara Zaneri will continue in her cross-brand leadership role as exec VP of global program acquisitions and running its centralized content acquisitions group.

(Pictured: )