JOHN GELKE

VP, Media · The Walt Disney Company

Media executive with 20+ years of experience across entertainment, audience strategy, and modern media transformation. I specialize in connecting business goals, audience insight, and media execution across an evolving platform landscape.

John Gelke

Streaming · DTC · Brand · Performance · Partnerships · Innovation

How I Work

I started in a negotiating room buying network TV at the upfronts. Two decades later, the rooms are different but the instinct is the same — figure out where the industry is going, build the infrastructure to get there, and bring the right people along for the ride

I've watched this industry go from scatter budgets and GRPs to first-party data, programmatic, and attribution models that actually work. I didn't just witness the shifts; I operationalized them. My focus has always been taking where media is headed and building the infrastructure to meet it there

Relationships are at the core of everything I do. I lead by building high-performing teams through mentorship, hands-on collaboration, and real trust. My goal is to empower the people around me to own their piece of the process so we're always building the next version of whatever this becomes

I've been lucky enough to have been led by the best bosses in the industry and now I look to pass that on. I'm still learning, still building, and still figuring out what the next version of all of this looks like. That's the part I love

Strategic Expertise

Media Strategy & Planning

I got my media education at one of the biggest agencies in the greatest city in the world — negotiating and buying network, cable, and syndication inventory across every daypart, from upfronts to scatter to sports. That foundation taught me how media actually gets made: the relationships, the leverage, the pace, and the pressure. Over 20 years that evolved into full-funnel planning across global markets, managing national budgets across full annual slates, and working within wider marketing organizations — partnering with creative, brand, PR, research, and digital teams to bring campaigns to life from strategy through execution

Direct-to-Consumer

The way we reach consumers has fundamentally changed — and I've been part of that evolution at every stage. What started as broad-reach awareness campaigns became full-funnel media strategy built around the entire consumer journey. I've helped build frameworks that connect upper-funnel brand storytelling through mid-funnel consideration and into conversion — across brand, post-theatrical, and corporate lines of business. The shift to DTC reshaped how we think about audience targeting, content lifecycle, and what it means to keep someone engaged long after the first impression. Every touchpoint is an opportunity to move someone further down the funnel, and the media strategy has to work that way from top to bottom

Data, Attribution & Tech-Driven Operations

We went from gut-feel media buys and GRPs to first-party data segmentation, multi-touch attribution, and frameworks that actually prove what's working. I helped build the systems that moved us from scatter budgets to precision targeting — connecting audience data to media decisions at scale. On the operations side, the workflows that used to take weeks now run on automation. I'm helping deploy tools that streamline communication, reporting, and cross-platform coordination — modernizing how marketing teams operate day to day. The measurement and the infrastructure have to evolve together, and that's what we're building now

Mentorship & Culture

I lead through curiosity, fostering teams where 'always learning' is the baseline. I care about how people think through problems, how they communicate up and across, and how they grow into the next version of their role. The best teams I've been part of were built on trust, real feedback, and the kind of culture where everyone feels ownership over the outcome — that's what I try to create everywhere I go

Leadership through Change

Coming out of the FOX HiPo program and the FOX/UCLA Management Development Program, I was trained to lead through complexity — and then the FOX-Disney acquisition put that training to the test in real time. I helped build and present 'Retention: A Leadership Challenge,' a live presentation focused on keeping talent stable and morale intact during one of the biggest integrations in entertainment history. Then I became the bridge myself — navigating two cultures, two operating models, and two ways of thinking about media, and helping teams on both sides find common ground. That experience shaped how I lead through any transition: with clarity, with empathy, and with a focus on keeping people moving forward together

AI & the Next Era

AI is the most significant technological advancement of our lifetime — and I'm not waiting to see how it plays out. I'm actively using it every day to bring ideas and vision to life in ways that weren't possible even a year ago. From automating workflows to accelerating creative strategy to rethinking how teams collaborate and communicate, AI is changing everything about how we work. I'm leaning all the way in — not just to automate, but to augment. I'm focused on helping build AI-literate teams that will define the next decade of media

Career Timeline

NYC LA
2003–2006
National Broadcast Negotiator
Mindshare
Details
Negotiated and purchased network, cable, and syndication schedules across all dayparts, including upfront inventory allocation and scatter opportunities, trained and supervised assistant negotiators.
2006–2007
Network TV Negotiator
20th Century FOX
Details
Negotiated all FOX Film divisions across broadcast, cable, and sports scatter buying.
2007–2009
Media Manager
20th Century FOX
Details
Responsible for overall national media budget and strategy across a full annual slate, managing broadcast, cable, and syndication investment.
2009–2013
Director, Media
20th Century FOX
Details
Led national media strategy and planning across all FOX Film properties, overseeing multi-platform campaigns and growing team capabilities during the shift from traditional to digital-first.
2013–2018
Executive Director, Media
20th Century FOX
Details
Expanded strategic oversight to global media operations, building data-driven frameworks and first-party audience strategies as the industry moved from GRPs to precision targeting.
2018–2021
VP, Global Media
FOX / Disney
Details
Navigated the FOX-to-Disney transition while leading global media strategy across theatrical, home entertainment, and streaming launches. Helped build the bridge between two cultures.
2021–Present
VP, Media
The Walt Disney Company
Details
Leading media strategy across Disney+ Brand, Post Theatrical, and Corporate Brand Management. Helping deploy AI automation, modernizing workflows, and helping build the infrastructure for where media goes next.

Connect

LinkedIn

Let's connect professionally and explore ideas together

Email

Reach out directly — I'm always open to conversation

CTO of our house — "what game is still on" — hoping both teams have fun unless it's my kids, Mets, Knicks, or Giants — Breaking Bad is the greatest show of all time