Peña leaves MSNBC, named Univision SVP News, Local Media

Chris Peña has left his role as senior executive producer at MSNBC to join Univision.

Starting this week, he is Univision’s new SVP News, Local Media, overseeing local news operations for the station group, working on strategy and direction for the division. He’ll be initially be based in New York and later relocate to Miami.

He takes over from Lourdes Torres, who has been promoted to SVP of Political Coverage and Special Projects and is now dedicated to electoral coverage for the network.

Peña’s last day at MSNBC was Friday, March 18. He had been with the cable network since 2014. He began the new job at Univision on Monday.

Prior to MSNBC, he was executive editor of the short-lived NBCLatino.com. The standalone website shut down in 2013 with Latino content reincorporated into a section within NBCNews.com in 2014.

He previously held jobs as assistant news director at WMAQ, the NBC O&O in Chicago and executive producer at WTVJ, NBC’s O&O in Miami.

Peña has previously worked for Spanish-language networks Telemundo and Univision. He was news director at KTMD Telemundo Houston from 2005 to 2006. Earlier on in his career, he worked as an editor for Univision Houston.

3/23/16: Univision officially announces Peña’s appointment, upping his title to SVP News and releases Torres’ new job title, both updated in the story.

3/25/16: Story is updated to include reference that a Latino section within NBCNews.com was incorporated in 2014.