Management Bios

Management Bios

Charlie Thurston
President

Charlie Thurston serves as the President of Comcast Spotlight. He joined Comcast Spotlight in 2002 and is responsible for leading a team of 3,600 employees in local, regional, and national advertising sales that generated approximately $2.3 billion in gross revenue in 2012. Comcast Spotlight is in nearly 80 TV markets, including 20 of the top 25. Comcast Spotlight sells the local advertising slots on 50+ cable networks (ESPN, CNN, CNBC, History Channel, etc), as well as banners/videos on internet sites (including XFINITY.com and others).

Comcast Spotlight built interconnects in 60+ markets, joining over five million affiliated subscribers from Time Warner, Charter, Cox and BrightHouse. Over the past several years, Comcast Spotlight and NCC Media have reached landmark deals with Verizon (for FiOS), AT&T (for U-verse TV) and DIRECTV to represent those companies for local spot advertising sales in a total of 33 Comcast Spotlight markets. Similar deals were previously inked to sell the Regional Sports Network inventory for DIRECTV and DISH Network in multiple markets.

Spotlight is also a pioneer in the new advanced advertising capabilities for television. New products include interactive television (iTV) advertising, dynamic ad insertion in video-on-demand programming and interactive iGuide banners that movie studios/programmers now regularly utilize.

Prior to joining Comcast Spotlight, he was President/CEO of Adlink, the Los Angeles digital interconnect. Hired as Adlink's General Sales Manager in 1989, Charlie was promoted to Vice President of Sales/Marketing in 1991, and then to President/CEO in 1992. Adlink grew from a startup of $750K in revenue in 1988 to $138 million by 2000 and is considered the blueprint for cable interconnects.

His experience spans 32 years in the cable industry. He was General Manager of Continental Cablevision's Cable Advertising Division from 1986-1989. Prior to that, his career included launching advertising sales for Cablevision Systems in New York, Connecticut and Boston. His career began in 1980 selling cable television subscriptions door-to-door.

Originally from Rye, New York, Charlie holds a BA degree from Williams College, 1980, where he also competed in baseball and football. He attended the Haas School of Business's Advanced Management Program at UC Berkeley, and is a member of YPO (Young Presidents Organization).

Charlie was recognized by Inc Magazine as an Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist in “Communications” in 1995, and “Technology” in 1996, and was the recipient of “The Silver Bell” Award from the Ad Council in 2005. He serves on the Board of Directors of NCC Media and the Advertising Council, and he is the former Chairman of the Board for The Cable Advertising Bureau (CAB). Charlie is also an avid participant in SkiTAM, which aids The Olympic Disabled Ski Team. Charlie is married with a son and a daughter.

Hank Oster
Senior Vice President, General Manager

Hank Oster holds the position of Corporate Senior Vice President and General Manager of Comcast’s $2.2 Billion advertising division; overseeing the company’s divisions for national, regional and local sales, advanced media & Xfinity online sales, corporate data & research and corporate marketing & communications.

Upon joining Comcast in July 2002, he was tasked with developing the organization’s overall sales strategy. Currently, he structured the company with four Divisional Vice President’s overseeing the East, North-Central, South and West divisions serving over 30 million combined Comcast owned and affiliated subscribers. He consolidated the company’s advanced advertising, strategic alliances, on-demand publishing and online sales forces to form a new business unit called – CM360, positioning Spotlight as the one-stop-shop media solution for advertisers. In addition, he has worked closely with Corporate leadership to expand Spotlight’s footprint by forging new affiliate relationships with Cable Operators, Telco and Satellite companies.

Prior to joining Comcast, Hank served as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Adlink. He led the development of Adlink’s sales & marketing, strategic alliances division and Hispanic division which enabled advertisers to tap the households of the nation’s #1 Hispanic market. Adlink became the model for Comcast Spotlight and cable advertising Interconnects around the country.

Oster has more than 30 years of broadcast and cable experience, including his tenure as Vice President of Sales and Programming for Johnson Broadcasting and Vice President/Director of Sales for KHJ-TV (now KCAL) in Los Angeles, California.

He currently sits on the board of directors for National Cable Communications (NCC) and the Cable Advertising Bureau (CAB).

 

Steve Feingold
Senior Vice President of Operations and Strategic Planning
Steve Feingold serves as Comcast Spotlight’s Senior Vice President of Operations and Strategic Planning. His wide-ranging responsibilities include overseeing the development and implementation of technologies to deliver advertiser solutions, directing a wide range of e-business and operational systems. 
 
Steve joined Comcast Spotlight in 2000 as Group Vice President, Major Markets, after previously serving with Continental Cablevision/MediaOne, where he led the creation of the Greater Boston Interconnect. With Comcast Spotlight, he initially helped build the architecture for the company’s interconnects across dozens of markets.
 
Under his leadership, his team has conducted an industry-leading build-out out of Comcast Spotlight’s sales and execution systems, performance metrics technologies, and new advertiser products. He also led the company’s strategic move to acquire STRATA and the subsequent acquisition of SBS in 2005 and 2007, providing a stewardship tool for agencies and media companies. 
 
Steve has more than 27 years of cable industry experience. His recognition in the industry has included being named to the CableFAX Cable Sales Hall of Fame and being awarded the Cable Advertising Bureau Presidents Award. He is a graduate of Drew University and holds a Master’s degree in business/communications from Temple University.
 

 

 

Bill Haase
Senior Vice President, Finance & Administration

Bill Haase serves as Comcast Spotlight's Senior Vice President, Finance & Administration, where he oversees the finance, human resources, and legal functions. He manages all of the financial operations and reporting for the division as well as the administration of human resource practices for the company's  employees.

Haase joined Comcast Spotlight in February 2002, serving in various roles for the company's finance organization. He played a critical role in the acquisition and integration processes for a range of businesses, including former Adelphia advertising sales operations, Vehix, Strata, Spot Buy Spot and others. Before joining Comcast Spotlight, Haase previously worked at Ernst & Young LLP in the audit function and later served three years as the Financial Reporting Manager at CDNOW.com, a publicly traded Internet retailer. Haase is a certified public accountant, and graduated from Michigan State University with a bachelor's degree in accounting and an MBA. He also serves as Treasurer of the Ronald A. Rehling Memorial Fund, a not-for-profit organization that supports leukemia research at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Kellie Grutko
Senior Vice President, Marketing
Kellie Grutko serves as Senior Vice President of Marketing for Comcast Spotlight, the advertising sales division of Comcast Cable. One of the highest-ranking women in cable advertising, her wide-ranging responsibilities encompass all aspects of marketing and communications, including: advertising, branding, strategic analysis, product marketing, creative services, promotional partnerships, event planning, network relationships, public relations, public affairs, social media and the company’s Web site.
 
Ms. Grutko has developed Comcast Spotlight’s branding strategy while empowering the company’s marketing teams across the country with the tools and best practices to implement that strategy in the ways that work best in each of the company’s nearly 80 markets.  She oversaw Comcast Spotlight’s launch of the I+ brand, which was first introduced by NCC Media and is the name for the platform that enables advertisers to reach local consumers across cable, telephone and satellite television providers. For Comcast Spotlight’s rollout of the brand, the campaign developed by Ms. Grutko included a custom-designed character, which appeared in multiple advertising platforms at the national and local levels.
 
Ms. Grutko also oversaw the first custom-built iPad and mobile app for cable media sales marketing. The app is regularly refreshed with timely content relevant to Comcast Spotlight’s clients, such as information about Olympics and political advertising in 2012, and multi-screen advertising opportunities in 2013. Under her leadership, Comcast Spotlight also introduced the “Take Five for Your Future” campaign. Initially a series of informative emails and videos, the initiative has grown into a series of successful webcasts dedicated to topics of critical importance to the advertising and media industry.
 
Ms. Grutko has close to two decades of experience in cable advertising. She joined the Comcast Ad Sales corporate team after the merger of Comcast and the Lenfest Group, serving as Corporate Director of Marketing & Promotions. She then moved to the corporate offices in New York to serve as the Director of Local Marketing & Promotions for the Comcast Spotlight marketing team. 
 
An industry leader, Ms. Grutko is an active contributor to numerous industry and business organizations as a member of Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT), CTAM and Comcast Spotlight’s Diversity Council. She also is a graduate of WICT’s Betsy Magness Leadership Institute.  Ms. Grutko founded the Cable Advertising Bureau’s (CAB) Cable Advertising Marketing & Promotions (CAMP) Committee, which fosters cross-MSO idea and best-practice sharing throughout the ad sales marketing community.  She also helped to launch and market Elections ’08, the first-ever cross-MSO sales initiative, which helped pave the way for the formation of Canoe Ventures.
 
Ms. Grutko has received numerous industry awards and recognition, including the CAB’s Corporate Sales Achievement Award and the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing’s (CTAM) Golden Mark Award. She also has been a finalist in the CAB’s Cable Advertising Awards in multiple years, been named both a “Woman to Watch” and a “Wonder Woman” by Multichannel News and has been one of CableFAX Magazine’s “Most Powerful Women in Cable” for multiple years.
 
Ms. Grutko is active in the community, including volunteering with the Southeastern Pennsylvania chapter of the Make A Wish Foundation. Her past involvements included serving as a member of the March of Dimes Community Council; serving as Co-Chair of the American Heart Association’s Heart Walk; and serving as a runner and fundraiser for the American Stroke Association’s 2002 half marathon. She holds a B.A. from Pennsylvania State University.