Ann Marie Sarnoff is an American television executive. She became the chairperson and CEO of Warner Bros. in the summer of 2019. Sarnoff is the first woman to hold the position at the company.
Sarnoff started out as a strategic consultant at Marakon Associates. From 1993 to 2003, Sarnoff worked at Viacom. Her first job at Viacom was in the corporate development department. After leaving corporate, Sarnoff was the head of Nickelodeon consumer products and business development during Geraldine Laybourne's leadership of the company. In 1999, while working at Nickelodeon, Sarnoff was part of a team that created the TV channelNoggin, a joint venture between Nickelodeon and Sesame Workshop. Sarnoff also helped create the television channel TV Land, which started off as Nick at Nite's TV Land in 1996. Two shows she promoted were Rugrats and Blue's Clues. Sarnoff served as executive vice-president of business strategy and program enterprises at VH1. In 2001, she became chief operating officer of VH1 and Country Music Television, with the task of integrating the two channels. During her time at VH1, Sarnoff launched the TV channel, VH1 Classic. In February 2004, Sarnoff was chief operating officer of the Women's National Basketball Association. In 2006, Sarnoff joined Dow Jones Ventures as president and senior vice president of strategy, a position she held for four years. In this position, she ran the executive conference business for The Wall Street Journal. From 2010 to 2015, Sarnoff was chief operating officer of BBC Worldwide North America, where she worked with Herb Scannell, who she had worked with at Nickelodeon. In August 2015, Sarnoff became president of BBC Studios Americas, formerly known as BBC Worldwide Americas. In 2015, she launched the subscription TV channel, BBC Earth, and promoted shows like Doctor Who, Top Gear, Dancing with the Stars, Sherlock, Orphan Black, and Killing Eve. From 2016 to 2018, Sarnoff was head of BBC Worldwide's Global Production Network. In 2017, she launched Britbox, a streaming service for North America. In the summer of 2019, Sarnoff becomes the first woman CEO of Warner Bros, a subsidiary of WarnerMedia that was formerly known as Time Warner Inc before it was bought by AT&T. Sarnoff succeeds Kevin Tsujihara and will report to John Stankey. Toby Emmerich, who is head of the Warner Bros. motion picture group, Peter Roth, who is the head of the Warner Bros. television group, and Kim Williams, executive VP and chief financial officer of Warner Bros. who oversees Otter Media, will all report to Sarnoff in her position as head of Warner Bros.
Personal life
In 1990, Sarnoff married Richard Sarnoff, a former media executive who works in private equity. They live in New York City and have two children. She will relocate to Los Angeles for her position at Warner Bros. Sarnoff's husband's great uncle, David Sarnoff, was the long-time chairman of RCA, a pioneer of American television and radio, and was known as "The General" or "General Sarnoff". He is credited with founding NBC in 1926.
Boards and memberships
, board member
2017–present: Britbox, chairman of board
2017–present: BritishAmerican Business, international advisory board
