ALBANY – Gov. Cuomo has tapped a top NBC News public relations pro as his new communications director.
Allison Gollust will replace Richard Bamberger.
She’ll be paid $169,000 a year, the same as Bamberger, who’s served as Cuomo’s top communications aide since 2008 when the governor was attorney general.
Gollust, who lives in the city with her husband and two daughters, worked as a reporter and producer in Denver, Colo., before briefly heading communications for Major League Soccer, and then moving on to to NBC.
There, she worked as senior publicist for the Today show – serving as spokeswoman for anchors Katie Couric and Matt Lauer -senior vice president of NBC News Communications, including MSNBC, CNBC and the Weather Channel, and most recently executive vice president of Corporate Communications for NBC Universal.
She left NBC Universal at the end of 2010 along with chief executive Jeff Zucker when Comcast completed its takeover of the company, and has been doing private consulting work since then.
Gollust brings international communications experience to Cuomo, who’s seen as a potential contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016.