Cesar Conde of Univision Leaves for NBCUniversal

Cesar Conde, who has been the president of Univision’s networks division since 2009, on Friday jumped to one of the Spanish-language broadcaster’s rivals, NBCUniversal.

Cesar Conde will be leaving Univision for a rival, NBCUniversal.

Mr. Conde initially will be an executive vice president at the company. In a news release, NBCUniversal said he would “focus on business development, strategic priorities and special business projects” across the sprawling company, which includes the Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo along with the English-language broadcast network NBC, cable channels including USA and Bravo, and Universal Studios.

Associates of Mr. Conde said this was likely to be a holding position of sorts â€" a precursor to a more specific appointment. A spokeswoman for NBCUniversal declined to comment on that prospect, but said that Mr. Conde’s role would not involve oversight of Telemundo, signaling a break from his decade in Spanish-language television.

Stephen B. Burke, the chief executive of NBCUniversal, to whom Mr. Conde will report, said in a statement, “His experience leading multiple domestic and international businesses will be instrumental in maximizing all the opportunities to grow our portfolio.”

Mr. Conde’s move comes at a time when his boss at Univision, Randy Falco, himself a former NBC executive, has been consolidating power. Mr. Falco was promoted to chief executive of Univision in mid-2011, succeeding Mr. Conde’s mentor, Joe Uva, who is now at Telemundo. While Mr. Conde has remained in charge of Univision’s broadcast networks and cable ventures since then, some of Mr. Conde’s responsibilities have shifted to executives hired by Mr. Falco.

One of Mr. Conde’s associates said he was tempted by the opportunity to work for a media company larger than Univision. While Univision is the largest Spanish-language broadcaster by far, and is growing quickly, it does not have the scale of NBCUniversal.

A Univision news release on Friday said that Mr. Conde had “announced he is resigning to pursue opportunities in English-language media.” Mr. Falco said he would not name a new president of the networks; instead, three executives will start reporting to him directly in a structure that he called “more nimble.” The executives are Alberto Ciurana, who manages programming and content; Isaac Lee, who oversees news; and Juan Carlos Rodriquez, the head of Univision sports.