Patricia Sellers

Pattie Sellers is the CEO of SellersEaston Media Co. and Chair of the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit. Sellers is also a former assistant managing editor of Fortune. An award-winning magazine writer, interviewer and multimedia journalist, Pattie wrote more than 20 cover stories during her three decades writing for Fortune. Pattie’s resume includes groundbreaking interviews with Warren Buffett, Rupert Murdoch, and Nike founder Phil Knight, and definitive profiles of Melinda Gates, Ted Turner, former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Oprah Winfrey, former Coca-Cola Chairman Muhtar Kent, Heineken heir Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken, and many other leaders in global business and other fields.

Pattie cofounded Fortune Most Powerful Women (MPW), which began in 1998 as an annual ranking of the top women in the business, and has grown to be the magazine’s largest and most valuable franchise. Pattie oversees six annual Fortune MPW conferences across the globe. Pattie also cofounded and directs various MPW programs, including the Fortune-U.S. State Department Global Women Mentoring Partnership and the Goldman Sachs-Fortune Global Women Leaders Award.

In 2013, Pattie won Time Inc.’s prestigious MVP (Most Valuable Performer) award for her innovative work at Fortune and her broad contributions across its then-parent company. The Washington Post profile of Pattie, “The Rolodex that Redefined Power,” describes her unmatched talent for interviewing and writing about successful people.

Sellers wrote some of Fortunes most talked-about cover stories, including Marissa Mayer: Ready to Rumble at Yahoo, Oprahs Next Act, Can Meg Whitman Save California?,The $100 Billion Woman (Melinda Gates), Martha Stewart (I cannot be destroyed) and Ted Turner (Gone with the Wind). A specialist at capturing larger-than-life personalities, she has profiled Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent (Muhtar Kents New Coke), billionaire Richard Rainwater (The Fight of Richard Rainwaters Life), Tom Freston (The Most Wanted Man on the Planet) and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson (Hank Paulsons Secret Life). She has also broken ground with insightful career management stories about Ego (Get Over Yourself!), Charisma (Do You Need It? Can You Get It?), Failure (So You Fail. So What?) and Power (Do Women Really Want It? and Women, Sex & Power.)

Sellers grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, graduated from the University of Virginia and started at Fortune in 1984.