National Geographic Partners Announces Additional New Hires for Digital Team

picture of National Geographic logo

As National Geographic Partners continues to solidify its place as a leader in digital and social innovation, Rachel Webber, Executive Vice President of Digital, announced today new leadership roles for the digital group. New hires include David Miller as Senior Vice President and General Manager, NationalGeographic.com, and Kyle Christensen as Vice President of Channel Social and Digital Strategy. Miller will report to Webber and Christensen will report to Jonathan Hunt, Senior Vice President of Social and Audience Development.

Miller and Christensen are joining a team of high-profile recent hires as National Geographic works to build its digital team charged with continuing to grow the No. 1 brand on social media and expand its digital consumer offerings. Recent additions to the team include Marcus East as Executive Vice President of Product and Technology who joined from Apple earlier this year; Marcelo Galdieri as Senior Vice President of Digital Product after 20 years at MasterCard; and Jonathan Hunt as Senior Vice President of Social and Audience Development after holding positions at Vox and Vice.

National Geographic is one of the most followed digital media brands with over 360 million social fans and a robust audience across web and mobile for its editorial and video content. It is the No. 1 non-celebrity brand on Instagram with more than 111 million followers, a top 10 brand on YouTube and the largest television network on Facebook with one of the 50 most followed pages worldwide. This year alone, National Geographic has grown to generate more than 6.4 billion content views each month across social platforms – a 20 percent increase.

“David and Kyle bring tremendous expertise, creative and business instincts, and a dedication to the consumer experience that are crucial as we work to scale our digital business,” Webber said. “While we have a running head-start as the No. 1 brand on social media, we know we have even greater potential to activate people’s curiosity and to build communities of passionate explorers. David and Kyle have done award-winning work building product, social, video and advertising solutions for some of the world’s most beloved brands. We’re thrilled that they are now part of our National Geographic team.”

The new hires and their roles are:

David Miller joins as Senior Vice President and General Manager, NationalGeographic.com. He will be responsible for the day-to-day experiences for both consumers and advertiser partners on the National Geographic website and is charged with leading National Geographic’s consumer and revenue growth goals. Miller comes to National Geographic Partners from AOL, where he most recently served as Vice President of Product Management. In 11 years at AOL, Miller held numerous leadership positions in product, strategy and operations, including overseeing monetization products for AOL’s owned-and-operated properties, driving new joint product opportunities following Verizon’s acquisition of AOL, and developing and launching AOL’s iab award-winning ad format, Project Devil. Miller also managed AOL’s video ad solutions and One Creative, the creative platform of AOL’s programmatic platform, One by AOL. Prior to joining AOL, Miller held leadership positions at Lightningcast (acquired by AOL), InPhonic Inc, Leap Wireless and Varsitybooks.com. Miller holds an MBA from George Washington University and a B.A. in American Government from Georgetown University. David lives in Arlington, Va., with his wife, Maia, and their two daughters.

Kyle Christensen joins as Vice President of Channel Social and Digital Strategy. Leading the social strategy for National Geographic’s broadcast channels, Christensen is responsible for the development and execution of National Geographic’s creative and comprehensive digital strategies for new shows and films. Christensen joins from Netflix, where he helped launch its Marvel series and “Narcos.” His campaigns for season one and two of “Narcos” took home a Shorty Award, multiple Cannes Lions and Facebook’s grand prize for Best Overall TV Social Campaign, Best Digital Content and Best Ad. Christensen then transitioned to lead the digital team for Netflix’s endeavor into original films. Before his time at Netflix, Christensen oversaw Warner Bros.’ interactive marketing campaigns for theatrical releases such as “Harry Potter” (winning the Shorty Award for launching Pottermore and most talked-about social campaign four years in a row), “The Dark Knight,” “The Hobbit,” “Man of Steel” and many more. Prior to that role, Christensen handled syndication and digital production for Fox Sports.

About National Geographic Partners LLC:

National Geographic Partners LLC (NGP), a joint venture between National Geographic and 21st Century Fox, is committed to bringing the world premium science, adventure and exploration content across an unrivaled portfolio of media assets. NGP combines the global National Geographic television channels (National Geographic Channel, Nat Geo WILD, Nat Geo MUNDO, Nat Geo PEOPLE) with National Geographic’s media and consumer-oriented assets, including National Geographic magazines; National Geographic studios; related digital and social media platforms; books; maps; children’s media; and ancillary activities that include travel, global experiences and events, archival sales, licensing and e-commerce businesses. Furthering knowledge and understanding of our world has been the core purpose of National Geographic for 129 years, and now we are committed to going deeper, pushing boundaries, going further for our consumers … and reaching over 760 million people around the world in 172 countries and 43 languages every month as we do it. NGP returns 27 percent of our proceeds to the nonprofit National Geographic Society to fund work in the areas of science, exploration, conservation and education. For more information visit natgeotv.com or nationalgeographic.com, or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Pinterest.

Media Contact:

Anna Kukelhaus Dynan, 202.912.6724, anna.kukelhaus@natgeo.com