Michelle Sobrino-Stearns

As the CEO and Group Publisher of the iconic media company, Variety, Michelle Sobrino-Stearns oversees the global editorial and business operations including strategic planning and financial governance.

Sobrino-Stearns has led the company’s transformation from a daily print publication to a multi-faceted media organization with a portfolio that includes digital, social, custom content, events, podcasts, and broadcast television.  Since her elevation to the role of Publisher in 2012, Variety has achieved twelve consecutive years of revenue gains and innovation, marking the strongest period of growth in the company’s history. Editorially, the brand has been recognized consistently for excellence in journalism by various associations, receiving over 195 nominations and 40 wins in the past year alone. Additionally, Variety.com was the highest-ranking entertainment business site every single month, averaging 29.1 million unique users each month in 2023.

She is the architect of numerous Variety divisions and franchises, including their booming events business which produces hundreds of virtual and live events and summits annually.

The franchises she has created include the “Power of Women” event series as well as “The Power of Women” Emmy-winning television specials in partnership with Lifetime Television.  She also spearheaded the multiple Emmy-winning “Actors on Actors” series in partnership with PBS.

Under her leadership Variety has expanded video development to include “Directors on Directors”; “Doc Dreams” and “Artisans” series featuring craftspeople in the entertainment industry. For the web, she has been the vanguard in the creation of new areas of coverage including discovery tools like “What to Watch” and “What to Hear”, and sections such as “Docs” which offer a deep dive into the world of documentary filmmaking.

She has been recognized by The Imagen Foundation, the nation’s leading organization promoting the advancement and positive portrayal of Latinos in front and behind the camera, as one of the powerful and influential Latinos in entertainment every year since 2015. In 2020, Editor & Publisher Magazine named Sobrino-Stearns one of the “10 Publishers Who Do It Right”.  She has also received honors from Girls Inc., and the National Association of Women Business Owners. An active community member, Sobrino-Stearns serves on the boards of the Aspen Institute Latinos and Society, City Year Los Angeles, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television. She is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles.