Comcast Names Mary Stutts Regional VP

Comcast has hired veteran communications professional Mary Stutts for the newly-created position of regional vice president of external affairs for California, reporting to Hank Fore, regional senior VP for Comcast California. Stutts will oversee all aspects of Comcast's communications, government affairs, community investment and telecommunications policy matters throughout the state. She will be based in the company's Livermore, Calif., office, and will manage a recently merged team of government affairs and communications professionals.

"Mary has a proven track record as an external affairs executive, strategic thinker, trusted advisor and a motivational leader," Fore said in a release. "Her understanding of corporate social responsibility and experience in directing large public affairs teams, make her the perfect choice to tell Comcast's story to our external stakeholders." 

For the last 23 years, Stutts has held a variety of external affairs leadership positions at Fortune 500 pharmaceutical and health care companies, including Genentech, Kaiser Permanente, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Bayer and UnitedHealth Group. Most recently, she served as VP of corporate communications at Bristol-Myers Squibb, and she was previously SVP of corporate relations at Elan Pharmaceuticals where she led a combined government affairs and communications organization. 

A long-time Bay Area resident, Stutts previously worked in broadcast and print media and served as the producer of The Informed Viewer, a current-affairs program that aired on KFCB/KTNC-TV in Concord, Calif.