Eli Velazquez is executive vice president of sports for NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises. In his role, Velazquez leads the network’s award-winning sports division, Telemundo Deportes, with oversight of sports production, programming, acquisitions, operations, and content. He is also responsible for the management and execution of major Spanish-language event coverage – including FIFA World Cup properties, the Olympic Games, NFL Sunday Night Football, U.S. Soccer Federation matches, Premier League, and Liga MX’s Chivas de Guadalajara – working closely with NBC Sports and Peacock. Velazquez reports to Beau Ferrari, the chairman of NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises.
A Telemundo veteran for over 20 years, Velazquez has played an integral role in the management and execution of Telemundo Deportes’ marquee sports properties. He spearheaded the production of Telemundo’s historic coverage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019, Copa America Brazil 2019, and more recently FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, which delivered record audiences across its linear and digital platforms, including the most-streamed FIFA World Cup Match in U.S. media history regardless of language. Under Velazquez’s leadership, Telemundo Deportes partnered with the U.S. Soccer Federation to become the exclusive Spanish-language home of U.S. National Teams beginning in 2023. He was instrumental in delivering the first-ever Super Bowl to air on a Spanish broadcast network in 2022, which became the most-watched NFL game in Spanish-language history and the decade’s highest-rated Spanish-language, non-soccer sporting event.
Velazquez joined Telemundo in 1999 as a producer for Boxeo Telemundo and Titulares Telemundo. He progressed to roles of increasing responsibility, including senior producer, director of sports, and vice president of sports. Velazquez is a six-time National Emmy Award winner and a four-time recipient of the Imagen Foundation’s Influential Latinos in Media.
He currently serves as the executive champion for NBCUniversal’s UNIDOS Employee Resource Group and is a member of the Advisory Board for Sports Video Group. Velazquez received his Bachelor of Arts in communications from Loyola University New Orleans.
Featured in: Tuesday General Sessions (12/12)
