Karthik Rao

Karthik leads Gracenote, the leading provider of metadata for the media and entertainment industries.

In his 16-year tenure at Nielsen, Karthik has held a variety of leadership roles spanning the U.S., Middle East and Asia for Nielsen’s Buy and Watch businesses. Most recently, he served President, Expanded Verticals, and led the teams serving our advertiser and agency clients. Prior to that role, Karthik was Executive Vice President of Digital Enablement where he oversaw a global transformation program. He previously led Nielsen’s Media Analytics business, which delivers deep analytical insights that help media companies with their ad sales and programming activities.

As head of Nielsen China, Karthik oversaw the company’s initiatives towards China becoming one of the company’s fastest growing markets for Nielsen. Karthik began his career as an account executive at Ogilvy & Mather in India.

Karthik has a passion for talent development and serves as Nielsen’s co-Executive Sponsor for the Asian Americans Link (AAL) internal employee resource group. He holds a degree in Economics from Loyola University in Chennai and an MBA from Illinois State University.