Arianna Huffington

Arianna Huffington is an author, philanthropist, television personality and owner of the independently liberal online news magazine, ‘The Huffington Post’. Originally from Greece, she moved to England when she was 16 and graduated from Cambridge University with an MA in Economics. At 21, she became president of the famed debating society, ‘The Cambridge Union’ and was the first foreign born student to do so. After graduation, she made her mark as a conservative syndicated columnist and with the launch of ‘The Huffington Post’ few years later, she created an online voice portal which offered critical observations on the political scenario. Her celebrity status helped her in getting several high-profile contributors to post their views on politics, news and culture. Arianna rose to fame in 2003 after she decided to contest as an independent candidate in the California recall election to replace then Governor Davis. Apart from this, she also led a Detroit project to promote fuel efficient cars. In 2009, she was named by Forbes as ‘The most influential women in media’; gaining 12th position in the list and in the same year Guardian included her in the top 100 media list. In 2011, AOL Inc. acquired ‘The Huffington Post’ and made her president of that media group which included many then-existing AOL properties too such as ‘Engadget’, ‘AOL music’, ‘Style list’ and ‘Patch Media’.