Cathie Black served as the chairman and president of Hearst Magazines, a division of Hearst Corporation, from 1996 to 2010. During her tenure at Hearst Magazines, overseeing both the print and digital operations, she steered the global expansion of over 200 publications, among them Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, and Good Housekeeping, as well as launched some of the publishing company’s most successful new titles, including O, The Oprah Winfrey Magazine, and Food Network Magazine, and was a strong advocate for digital innovation.

Prior to joining Hearst, Black served as President and CEO of the Newspaper Association of America. Black also served as president and publisher of USA Today, joining the newspaper when it was just a year old, and was widely credited for helping turn it into the number one newspaper in the U.S. Before her time in the newspaper business, Black was the publisher of New York Magazine, the first woman publisher of a consumer weekly in the country. She began her career in advertising sales.

Black served on the boards of The Coca-Cola Company, Gannett Co. Inc., Hearst Corporation, and IBM and now is a board advisor and investor to several early stage companies. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, author of the best-selling book Basic Black, and has appeared on Forbes and Fortune’s lists of the most powerful women in business on numerous occasions.

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