Arianna Huffington
Date of Birth: July 15, 1950
Location of Birth: Athens, Greece
Occupation: Journalist, Entrepreneur
Nationality: American; Greek
Alma mater: University of Cambridge
Arianna Huffington (b. Ariánna Stasinopoúlou July 15, 1950) is a Greek-American media professional, syndicated columnist and author. Huffington is best known for developing the news website The Huffington Post.
In her earlier years, Huffington was known as a liberal Democrat. However, she became a sought-after conservative commentator during the mid-1990s. Her ex-husband is Michael Huffington, a former Republican congressman. Huffington ran for Governor of California in the state’s recall election of 2003. In the same year, she scored a New York Times bestseller with Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption are Undermining America.
Arianna Huffington was born in Athens, Greece to parents Elli and Konstantions Stasinopoulos. Her sister Agapi is a speaker, author and performer.
At the age of 16, Huffington moved to the United Kingdom. She studied at Girton College in Cambridge. Eventually, she would become the foreign President of the Cambridge Union, as well as the third female to hold the position.
Arianna Huffington first gained national prominence in 1994 when her then-husband, Republican Michael Huffington, launched an unsuccessful Senate bid. Huffington would become known as a supporter of several conservative causes, such as Bob Dole’s candidacy for president and Newt Gingrich’s Republican Revolution.
Career
In 1973, Arianna Huffington wrote a book The Female Woman, which attacked the Women’s Liberation movement. She followed that publication with a more politically oriented title, After Reason, in 1980.
Arianna Huffington wrote articles for National Review in the late 1980s. She is the author of two biographies, Maria Callas – The Woman Behind the Legend and Picasso: Creator and Destroyer.
In 2005, Arianna Huffington created the website The Huffington Post. She co-founded the news platform with Kenneth Lerer. At first, The Huffington Post was known for its news aggregation, liberal punditry and blogging. It has since grown to a diverse range of categories, including sports, entertainment and politics.
Arianna Huffington continued writing books. She released Becoming Fearless … in Love, Work, and Life, which later served as inspiration for a Huffington Post blog series. Huffington’s book, Third World America: How Our Politicians Are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American Dream, was issued in 2010.
AOL acquired The Huffington Post in 2011 for $315 million. At this time, Huffington was installed as the editor in chief and president. The Huffington Media Post includes The Huffington Post, as well as AOL properties such as AOL Music, Path Media, Engadget and StyleList.
David Wood, a writer for The Huffington Post, earned a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for national reporting. International editions of The Huffington Post have been developed in France, Canada, Spain and Great Britain.
Arianna Huffington was ranked 12th on the first-ever list of Forbes Most Influential Women in Media produced by Forbes. In the most recent list of “Top 100 in Media” by The Guardian, she finished in the top fifty.
Huffington is also a regular co-host of the popular public radio program, Left, Right and Center. She serves on numerous boards that work to develop solutions to societal problems, including the Los Angeles organization A Place Called Home, which benefits at-risk children.