Greg Jackson Joins NBCUniversal as VP of University Outreach

NBCUniversal today announced that Gregory A Jackson has been named to the newly created role of Vice President for University Outreach. Jackson will work cooperatively with a range of stakeholders in the entertainment and higher-education communities to develop and implement strategies that will help colleges and universities and content providers better guide students toward appropriate means for obtaining digital movies, television programs, and similar online materials. Jackson, based in the company's Washington, DC office, will report to Rick Cotton, Executive Vice President and General Counsel.

"We see this new role as a critically important part of our long-term campaign to highlight legitimate online outlets for TV and movies, while at the same time educating key audiences about the corrosive impact of digital theft on employment," commented Cotton. "Greg's extensive experience as a technologist and broad-based knowledge of the university environment combine to make him a highly credible ambassador. I look forward to working closely with him as we continue to reach out to the university Community regarding this very serious issue."

Most recently Jackson served as Vice President for Policy at EDUCAUSE, the principal international association for higher-education information technology, where he was responsible for a broad array of policy advocacy, for the Advanced Core Technologies Initiative, and for policies governing the .edu top-level Internet domain.

While at EDUCAUSE, Jackson served on the Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities. The Joint Committee was co-sponsored by the Recording Industry Association of American (RIAA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the American Association of Universities (AAU), the American Council on Education (ACE), the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), and EDUCAUSE.

From 1996 through 2009, Jackson was Vice President and Chief Information Officer at the University of Chicago, leading the University's 300-person, $70-million central IT organization. Jackson came to the University of Chicago from MIT, where he served as Director of Academic Computing. During his tenure at Chicago, Jackson testified before Congress on copyright-compliance issues. He served as the lead higher-education negotiator as the US Department of Education developed rules to implement the copyright provisions of the Higher Education Opportunities Act (HEOA) of 2008.

Before moving into IT leadership, Jackson spent over a decade on the Stanford and Harvard faculties, teaching research methodology and higher-education policy. He has written extensively on higher-education and IT issues, and is co-author of two books, Who Gets Ahead and Regional Diversity.

Jackson holds an MIT bachelor's degree and a Harvard doctorate.