Fernández named EVP of Network News at Telemundo

Telemundo announced the appointment of Luis Fernández to Executive Vice President of Network News, reporting to Luis Silberwasser, President of Telemundo.  Fernández replaces Luis Carlos Vélez who will join Telemundo News’ existing talent team as a news anchor and senior correspondent.

“News plays a central role in terms of how we inform and empower our community,” said Cesar Conde, Chairman NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises and NBCUniversal International Group.  “Luis Fernández will play a strategic role in leading our Network News division at a time when the U.S. Hispanic community is playing an increasingly important role in the transformation of our country.”

Fernández will oversee the network news operations and manage editorial direction, programming and production of all news properties, including the award-winning nightly newscast, “Noticiero Telemundo”; the Sunday news program “Enfoque con Jose Diaz-Balart”; the national weekend newscast “Noticias Telemundo Fin de Semana”; the news content of Telemundo’s morning program “Un Nuevo Día”; and the network’s daily news magazine program, “Al Rojo Vivo,” hosted by Emmy® award-winning journalist María Celeste Arrarás. Fernández also will oversee other related network news programming, breaking news and specials, as well as work closely with Mario Kreutzberger “Don Francisco” in producing and coordinating high profile interviews.  Additionally, he will be charged with strengthening the collaborations with Telemundo’s owned and operated stations and leveraging the relationship with NBC News, the leading source of global news and information.

“Luis Fernández is an accomplished journalist and television executive, and we are thrilled to have him join our leadership team to steer our critical Telemundo News division to new heights,” said Silberwasser. “We are thankful to Luis Carlos Vélez who brought innovation and a new focus on breaking news which led us to a record-breaking year.  We are excited that he will be able to join Telemundo News’ Emmy Award-winning talent team led by Jose Diaz-Balart and Maria Celeste Arraras, and pursue his dreams as a journalist and on-air talent at Telemundo.”

“I join an excellent team of journalists and producers with three priorities: to compete and win; to investigate; and to win the digital battle,” said Fernández. “To be in News again is a dream come true. Above all, I am a journalist and news is my passion.”

Fernández joins Telemundo with nearly three decades of journalistic experience.  Prior to relocating to the U.S. in 2007, he was CEO of Radio Television Española (RTVE). Previously, Fernández held multiple positions in journalism, television, radio, news and production, including News Director at Canal +, where he moderated the only televised face-to-face debate for the 1996 elections; News Director of Telecinco; News Director at Cadena SER, the main radio network in Spain; General Manager at Plural Entertainment, a television and film production company; and CEO of PROMOFILM US, where he was executive producer of several films.  In 2009 he joined Univision Communications as President of Entertainment and President of Univision Studios.  Most recently, Fernández was CEO of Real Madrid for the Asia Pacific Region in Beijing, China.

Luis Carlos Vélez joined Telemundo News in 2015 as Executive Vice President of Network News. Before joining Telemundo, he was Anchor and News Director in Caracol Television in Colombia. In that role he supervised all editorial content for Caracol News across its multimedia platforms, leading a team of more than 150 journalists.  Under his leadership Noticias Caracol became Colombia´s TV news leader reaching its highest ratings since its launch in 1998.  Prior to that, Luis Carlos was an anchor and reporter fo