Marcos Santana Transitioning to a New Role at Telemundo Global Studios

After 14 years in leadership roles at Telemundo, including seven years at the helm of Telemundo Global Studios, Marcos Santana is taking on a new position as advisor and executive producer starting January 2022.

Currently the president of Telemundo Global Studios, Santana will move into a new multiyear role that will allow him to focus on select original productions, including the third season of La Reina del Sur, while pursuing other independent opportunities.

Since 2017, he led Telemundo Global Studios, including the division’s domestic and international scripted production units such as Telemundo Studios, Telemundo Streaming Studios and Telemundo International in Mexico, as well as all of the division’s co-production partnerships. Most recently, Santana led the launch of Telemundo Streaming Studios, the first studio in Hispanic media focused on developing and producing Spanish-language premium content for Hispanic streamers.

“Marcos is an outstanding media executive, creative leader and a key contributor to making Telemundo the number one producer of Spanish-language scripted content in the U.S.,” said Beau Ferrari, chairman of NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises. “His leadership and relentless commitment to high-quality content helped Telemundo become an industry leader and set new standards with our world-class original productions. We’re thrilled he will continue to be part of the Telemundo family in his new role and contribute to our growth for years to come.”

“It has been an honor to call NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises my home for almost 15 years,” said Santana. “I am thankful to Telemundo for giving me the support and creative liberty to develop and produce some of the most impactful Spanish-language content in the world while raising the production quality in Hispanic media and closing landmark co-production partnerships. I look forward to continuing working with the great team of professionals at Telemundo and focus on the projects that I love as I embark on a new and exciting stage of my career.”

Karen Barroeta, executive VP of production and development at Telemundo Global Studios, will continue to oversee the development and production of long-format scripted content, talent and the head writers’ team. Juan Ponce, senior VP and general manager of Telemundo Streaming Studios, will continue to lead short-format scripted content exclusively designed for direct-to-consumer platforms, in addition to production operations, production design and Telemundo’s Underground Producciones in Argentina. Starting on January 2022, both will report directly to Ferrari.