Alumni Merit Award

Each year U-M Industrial and Operations Engineering recognizes an alum who personifies the College of Engineering’s tradition of excellence.

2024 Alumni Merit Award Honoree: Monica Williams

Monica Williams is a forward-thinking, inclusive leader with a tremendous track record in building high-performing teams, leveraging innovation and operational agility to deliver results. She has in-depth experience building programs, and delivering new products from ideation through execution. Throughout her career, Williams has drawn upon her classical business training, Six Sigma Black Belt and entrepreneurial spirit to make an impact and navigate teams through change. Her scope of leadership spans general/P&L management as well as the end-to-end business value chain, including operations,  manufacturing/production, supply chain/logistics, partnerships, sales/marketing, business development, technical product R&D and engineering, enterprise and direct-to-consumer solution delivery, and talent management. 

Williams is the Senior Vice President, Digital Products & Operations, for NBCUniversal Content  Distribution. Williams leads the team responsible for how people experience viewing all NBCUniversal network portfolio content across digital platforms. Her role encompasses content fulfillment of on-demand and linear channels, as well as developing innovative experiences through product and data solutions. Williams has been instrumental in enabling monetization for STB VOD through the launch of C3 and Dynamic Ad Insertion, building and launching TV Everywhere, Go To Market Ops plan and launch of portfolio FAST channels, and the rollout of NBCUniversal experiences across vMVPDs and Connected Platforms. Following consumer attention, Williams and her team applied a human-centered design approach and developed a metadata optimization initiative that drives efficient content discovery to meet business needs. She reports to Matt Bond, Chairman, Content Distribution.  

Williams joined NBCUniversal in 2005 as a Six Sigma Black Belt for Studio Operations. She then transitioned to Universal Studios Digital Services in 2008 as Manager of Digital Media Operations where she leveraged her operational knowledge of Studio Operations to develop and generate business opportunities. Williams later became Director of Technical Accounts for Operations & Technical Services organization within NBCUniversal servicing business clients in the Digital Media realm. Following this, Williams became the Director of Technical Accounts for Operations and Technical Services, where she served NBCUniversal’s Digital Media business clients. 

Williams began her career as an intern in GE’s Early Identification (EID) program with GE Aviation in Cincinnati and was then accepted into GE’s prestigious Operations Management Leadership Program (OMLP) with GE Aviation.  

Williams is a founding member of NBCUniversal’s “Asian Pacific Americans @ NBCUniversal,” previously acting as the Southern California chapter lead and serving on the national committee. Williams additionally served on the global advisory board of NBCUniversal’s TechWomen organization. Williams is also a founding member of Chief in Los Angeles, a private network designed specifically for women leaders. Williams is on the advisory board for the StreamTV show, the Claremont Graduate University Drucker School of Management, and is an advisory member of Girls Write Now’s technology committee. She has previously served on the Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) SoCal chapter advisory board. Williams speaks regularly at industry events on leadership, women in technology and diversity.  

Williams has received numerous industry awards, including Cablefax Magazine’s “Most Powerful  Women in Cable (2016, 2017, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023), “Most Influential Minorities in Cable” (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020), “Women in Tech – Woman of the Year” by Multichannel News in 2015,  Cynopsis’ “Top Women in Media” (2019, 2020, 2021, 2023) and “Digital IT List” (2020, 2021) and Digital  Diversity Network’s innovation and inclusion award in 2018. Williams was awarded NAMIC’s Next Generations Leaders of 2022, “Top 50 Women Leaders of Austin” (2022) and Wonder Women of NY 2023 by Multichannel News.  

Williams is a University of Michigan graduate with a BS in Industrial and Operations Engineering. She also holds an MBA from Claremont Graduate University, Peter Drucker School of Management with a concentration in Marketing and Leadership. She is also a graduate of Harvard Business School’s Cable Executive Management Program.  

Williams and her husband, Jeffrey, currently reside outside of Austin with their three sons, Kingsley, Anderson, and Lexington, and their three fur babies, Leo, Max and Sebastian.