Stephen B. Burke (born August 14, 1958) is an American businessman. He currently serves as the senior executive vice president of Comcast and chairman of

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States. NBCUniversal is primari ...

Early life

Steve Burke's father, Daniel Burke, was a former executive of

Capital Cities Communications Capital Cities/ABC Inc. was an American media company. It was founded in 1985 when Capital Cities Communications purchased the much larger American Broadcasting Company. It eventually proposed a merger of equals with The Walt Disney Company and ...

, which acquired the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

network. Steve Burke graduated from

Colgate University Colgate University is a private liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York. The college was founded in 1819 as the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York and operated under that name until 1823, when it was renamed Hamilton Theologi ...

in 1980. In 1982, Burke graduated from the

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

with an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

Career

Burke began his career as an associate product manager in the breakfast food division at General Foods. In January 1986, Burke joined

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

and founded the Disney Store concept for the consumer product division. From 1992 to 1996, Burke served as president and COO of Euro Disney. In 1996, Burke was named executive vice president of ABC after the Walt Disney Company purchased the network. The following year, Burke was named President of ABC Broadcasting. In 1998, Burke left Disney and became President of

Comcast Cable Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, doing business as Xfinity, is an American telecommunications company and division of Comcast Corporation used to market consumer cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless services provided by the com ...

. In 2004, he was named Chief Operating Officer of Comcast Cable, in addition to his title of President. In 2010, it was announced that Burke would become CEO of NBCUniversal after Comcast and General Electric completed a merger. When Comcast and

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable energ ...

finished merging the assets of NBCUniversal with Comcast's programming assets the following year, Burke resigned his position as COO of Comcast before becoming CEO of

. In 2018, Burke led Comcast's acquisition of British pay-TV company,

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

, after dropping out of the bidding war with Disney to purchase 21st Century Fox. In January 2019, Burke announced plans for NBCUniversal to launch a streaming service, later named

Peacock Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera ''Pavo (genus), Pavo'' and ''Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female pea ...

, in 2020 using Sky's existing OTT video platform. As of 2009, Burke has served on the Board of Directors of

Warren Buffett Warren Edward Buffett ( ; born August 30, 1930) is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is currently the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is one of the most successful investors in the world and has a net ...

Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Its main business and source of capital is insurance, from which it invests the float (the retained premiu ...

and

JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the ...

. He has also served on the board of trustees of the

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is a children's hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with its primary campus located in the University City neighborhood of West Philadelphia in the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. The ...

. As of 2021, Burke became a board member for onxmaps.com out of Missoula, Montana. Following being appointed to the onXmaps board, he made a major investment in onXmaps through his family's investment company Madison Valley Partners.

Personal life

Steve Burke married his wife, Gretchen (née Hoadley) on July 23, 1983 and together they have five children. Burke has homes in New York City and Los Angeles.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burke, Steve 1958 births Living people American television executives Colgate University alumni Directors of JPMorgan Chase Harvard Business School alumni NBC executives New York (state) Republicans People from Delaware County, Pennsylvania Place of birth missing (living people) NBC chief executive officers Comcast people Chairmen of NBCUniversal 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople