Linda Yaccarino, NBCUniversal’s advertising chief, was preparing to interview Elon Musk, Twitter’s owner, onstage at a conference last month when she received an email from a peer in the advertising industry.
Rob Norman, a former executive at the ad giant WPP, wanted to know if Ms. Yaccarino had seen the op-ed he wrote after Mr. Musk bought Twitter last year.
Ms. Yaccarino said that she had and that she planned to raise such concerns, Mr. Norman said.
Mr. Musk said on Friday that he had selected Ms. Yaccarino, 60, to become the company’s chief executive.
Hours earlier, NBCUniversal announced that Ms. Yaccarino was leaving, effective immediately.