Mokhtari named President & GM of Telemundo 20 in San Diego

NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations, a division of NBCUniversal, announced that Todd Mokhtari has been named President and General Manager of NBC 7 / KNSD and Telemundo 20 / KUAN, NBCUniversal’s local television stations that serve English and Spanish-speaking audiences in San Diego.

In this role, Mokhtari will oversee all operations of both stations including news, digital, sales, marketing/promotions, community affairs, and operations/technology. He will leave NBC4 Southern California, where he’s led the station’s newsroom as Vice President of News since 2012. He will report to Valari Staab, President, NBCUniversal Owned Television Stations.

“Todd is well respected by his colleagues and peers and has done an exceptional job at KNBC. He’s spearheaded a complete restructuring of the station’s news operations which has resulted in KNBC’s local news ranking #1 and #2 in the market among its key audiences,” added Staab. “His extensive familiarity with West Coast audiences, including communities up and down the California coast, will help to strengthen our already strong NBC and Telemundo San Diego teams.”

“Todd has worked hand in hand with our Telemundo station news team in Los Angeles for the past seven years. He understands very well how important our Telemundo stations are for our Spanish-speaking communities, and look forward to seeing the great work he’ll do with our Telemundo 20 team in San Diego in his new role,” said Manuel Martinez, President, Telemundo Station Group.

Mokhtari has more than 25 years of experience leading newsrooms in the country’s top 20 TV markets including Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento. He leaves for San Diego after working as Vice President of News for KNBC since 2012. While at KNBC, Mokhtari restructured NBC4’s newsroom, launched new local newscasts and digital/mobile platforms, expanded the station’s investigative team to help restore the culture of enterprise journalism in the newsroom, strengthened news collaborations with sister station Telemundo 52 / KVEA, and oversaw the launch of state-of-the-art fixed, mobile and digital weather radars while growing the station’s weather team to be the most accurate weather team in Los Angeles for three years in a row. Today, KNBC airs more than 40 hours of local programming each week, is one of the most diverse newsrooms in the nation and a multi-platform powerhouse that consistently ranks as the #1 or #2 English-language station in the market for local news.

“I’m very excited to take on this great opportunity. It is a privilege to cover the communities we live in day to day,” noted Mokhtari. “NBC 7 and Telemundo 20 are outstanding news organizations. From covering the effects that smoke from local wild fires may have in our communities to our KNSD and KUAN investigative teams uncovering federal agencies’ questionable practices at our southern U.S. border, I am proud to lead our San Diego stations and the important work they do to strengthen the communities we call home.”

Prior to KNBC, Mokhtari worked at KIRO-TV as News Director from 2007 to 2012. During his time there, he enhanced the station’s social team and helped to elevate the station to the number one market position for engagement on all social platforms. Before this, he worked at KNBC for a year as Managing Editor and as Assistant News Director for NBC Bay Area / KNTV from 2002 to 2006. While at KNTV, he helped to create a more diverse newsroom and oversaw the launch of new digital channels to better serve the market’s tech savvy audiences. Earlier in his career, Mokhtari worked as News Director at KCPQ-TV in Seattle and led the launch of the station’s news operations and negotiated key local sports programming partnerships. Mokhtari launched his career in local broadcasting as an intern at KCRA-TV in Sacramento and held various roles with increasing responsibility including Newscast Producer.