Vox Media has promoted two of its top podcast executives, Ray Chao and Nishat Kurwa, to new svp roles overseeing video content and programming for the Vox Media Podcast Network, respectively.
Currently the general manager of audio, Chao is expanding his purview to include Vox Media’s digital video business as svp and gm of audio and digital video. The executive first joined Vox Media in 2021 and has gone on to secure talent deals with Kara Swisher, Sam Sanders, Noel King and Ariel Helwani, as well as sales and distribution partnerships with existing shows like Marques Brownlee’s Waveform: The MKBHD Podcast; Josh Muccio’s The Pitch; Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley’s Gastropod and Aaron Lammer, Max Linsky and Evan Ratliff’s Longform podcast.
As svp and executive producer of audio, Kurwa will continue to lead programming, production operations, content strategy and new show development for the Vox Media Podcast Network. Working closely with Vox Media’s editorial brands — which include New York magazine and Vox — her work has included developing and growing Vox’s daily news podcast, Today, Explained, Sanders’ culture show Into it and Swisher and Scott Galloway’s tech-focused series Pivot, as well as leading the production of shows made with Apple, Spotify and Audible.
Both executives were recently featured in The Hollywood Reporter’s inaugural Podcast Power List in October.
“Ray and Nishat have played a key role in growing the Vox Media Podcast Network into one of the largest podcast publishers,” Marty Moe, the president of Vox Media Studios, said in a statement. “I couldn’t be more excited to announce their new roles, and look forward to working with them as we continue to produce unrivaled programming with some of the best voices in the business.”