• Oprah Gail Winfrey

• Born on January 29, 1954; at Kosciusko, Mississippi, United States to a teenage single mother.

• Is an actress, philanthropist, publisher and producer.

• She is best known for hosting her own internationally popular talk show  The Oprah Winfrey Show from 1986 to 2011.

• Dubbed the "Queen of All Media".

• Been ranked the richest African-American, the greatest black philanthropist in American history.

• Winfrey was named "Orpah" on her birth certificate after the biblical figure in the Book of Ruth.

• But people mispronounced it regularly and "Oprah" stuck.

• She experience considerable hardship during her childhood.

• Claiming to be raped at age nine and becoming pregnant at 14; her son died in infancy.

• Winfrey landed a job in radio while still in high school and began co-anchoring the local evening news at the age 19.

• After boosting a third-rated local Chicago talk show to first place, she launched her own production company and become internationally syndicated.

• Winfrey launched the Oprah Winfrey Show in 1986 as a nationally syndicated program.

• A global audience and a $2.7 billion net worth.

• She transitions from network TV to cable in January to cut the ribbon on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) which is arguably the pinnacle of her career.

• Oprah’s people strategy is simple. She invests in top talent, seeks out smart mentors, values her customer and consistently nourishes each relationship.

• She carefully selects her top team to assure competence and compatibly, and then stands by them.

• She also seeks out mentors that she admires who will offer her guidance.

• Oprah is similarly smart not to take her audience for granted.Often incorporates the audience into her content, signaling to them that she is listening.

• She notoriously shows her appreciation with gifts.

• “Oprah’s Big Give” is a dedicated show in which she gives her favorite things to the entire studio audience; she speaks to them as equals who she cares about greatly.

• Not only does the nurturing of each of these relationships inform her success in the present, it sets up her future success.

• Investing in loyal mentors, peers, employees and consumers means she has a massive team that will follow her anywhere.

• Oprah’s principal strengths as a leader has been creating a vision of her success, communicating that vision to those around her and being resolute in its execution.

• She’s been brave enough to dream big and smart enough to climb step by step.

• Oprah crafted a focused brand and then slowly built it out by diversifying its distribution. Her underpinning was the television show.

• Next came her company, the production of movies and subsidiary TV shows, multiple charitable foundations, a magazines, a radio channel and a website. OWN will fill 24 hours a day with programming inspired and approved by Oprah.

• Oprah’s personal values and those that she’s injected into each arm of her business represent the foundation of her success.

• Her message of positivist - to “live your best life”- endears her to everyone around her.

• Oprah’s continuously is held in the highest esteem because her humor, reliability, optimism, and generosity associate her with a greater good.

• She established philanthropic efforts that bettered the world.

• She launched the Oprah Winfrey Foundation, a school in South Africa and an audience-mobilizing effort, Oprah’s Angel Network.

• A personal dedication to continued reinvention and resilience has kept her brand strong over the decades.

• Carefully selects her team

• Gathers trusted mentors

• Values her customer

• Strategically extends her brand

• Keep her brand focused

• Remains resilience

• Demonstrates a social conscience

• Communication her vision

• Dream big

• Rewards employees