Joanna Coles

Joanna Coles is global chief content officer at Hearst, where she has oversight of iconic brands including Cosmopolitan, ELLE, Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, and the new Airbnbmag. Coles additionally sits on the board of directors of Snap Inc. Recently, Coles co-created and serves as executive producer on two TV projects: So Cosmo, a docu-series airing in 152 countries on E!; and The Bold Type, a scripted drama loosely inspired by her life, produced by Universal Television, debuting this summer on Freeform. Described by The New York Times as “one of the most powerful people in media,” Coles is currently writing a book with Harper Collins on relationships in the digital age.

Joanna Coles is chief content officer of Hearst Magazines. She additionally sits on the board of directors of Snapchat, as well as the board of Women Entrepreneurs New York City, an initiative to expand female entrepreneurship, with a focus on underserved women and communities.

The British-born editor arrived in the U.S. in 1997 as the New York bureau chief for The Guardian, before moving on to become the New York columnist for The Times of London. Coles joined Hearst in 2006 as editor-in-chief of Marie Claire. She was named editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan, the world’s largest women’s media brand, in 2012.

Over the course of her career, Coles has won numerous prestigious awards for journalism and media leadership. She was recently described by The New York Times as “one of the most powerful people in media.”