Neeraj Khemlani

Neeraj Khemlani is senior vice president and chief creative officer of Hearst Corporation. He works across all of Hearst's global brands and with Hearst’s creative teams, managers and group heads to innovate the best possible products, content offerings and user experiences on every platform. Hearst Corporation is one of the nation's largest diversified media and information companies. Its major interests include magazine, newspaper and business publishing, cable networks, television and radio broadcasting, digital businesses, TV production and distribution, newspaper features distribution, business information and real estate. Previously, Khemlani was deputy group head of Hearst Entertainment & Syndication, where he focused on expanding the company’s non-fiction television production activities and fostering relationships with pivotal partners, including Mark Burnett and NorthSouth Productions. Khemlani joined Hearst Corporation in March 2009 as the vice president and special assistant to the CEO for digital media. He reported directly to CEO Frank A. Bennack, Jr., and managed the promotion and coordination of digital content transformation across the company. Prior to Hearst, Khemlani was vice president and general manager of Yahoo! News & Information and head of Yahoo! Originals. In this position, he managed the business and products of Yahoo! News, Tech, Weather and Education, and the editorial programming for Yahoo! Finance, as executive editor. He also directed original content programming, including product design, content production and sponsorship sales, across all Yahoo! Media channels (from news and finance to sports and entertainment); and initiated and oversaw strategic business development content deals with major media companies. From 1998 to 2006, Khemlani was a producer for CBS News’ 60 Minutes and 60 Minutes II. Before that, he was at ABC News, where he produced segments for Nightline, Good Morning America, Peter Jennings Reporting and ABC News Specials. Khemlani began his career as a newspaper reporter, stringing for the New York Times and writing for The Post-Standard in Syracuse, N.Y. Khemlani was a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He has won numerous awards, including a 2004 Emmy nomination for Business Reporting, a 2003 Emmy nomination for Best Interview, the 2002 Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting and a DuPont Award in 1995 for his participation in ABC News’ coverage of the war in Bosnia. Khemlani holds a master’s of science in journalism from Columbia University, where he graduated with honors, and a bachelor’s in communications from Cornell University, where he was the editor in chief of The Cornell Daily Sun.