Susan Krakower

Susan Krakower is Senior Vice President, Strategic Programming & Development, CNBC. She is responsible for creating new programming for CNBC, program acquisitions and branded content.

Krakower is best known for creating CNBC’s highly successful “Mad Money with Jim Cramer,” a show that gives viewers insight and fiery opinions straight from of one of Wall Street’s most respected and successful money managers. It was Krakower’s idea and vision to create a show unlike anything CNBC had done before, to tear down the wall between business journalism and the community it covered, and use a financial professional with first-hand experience to forge a new path. She also strove to expand the audience beyond traditional business news viewers, conceiving the “Mad Money College Tour” to engage and educate students about investing in the stock market. The response to this innovation was overwhelming: “Mad Money” blew out its time period, increasing ratings by 237%; it was featured on the cover of BusinessWeek, profiled on “60 Minutes,” featured in dozens of newspaper and magazine pieces and building Mad Money and Jim Cramer into the brand it is today.

Krakower followed this success by developing CNBC’s “Fast Money,” the fastest growing show in cable news in 2007. Building on her idea of having real financial professionals at the core of a show, her vision this time was to create a sports show for money – a fast-paced, highly-charged hour where four of Wall Street’s best traders come “off the field” to provide the audience with the information and analysis that shaped the trades they made today and will make tomorrow. The result is a show unlike anything else in business news, one that the New York Times said brought the “brashness” back to CNBC and improved CNBC’s ratings in the 5p time period by 68%.

This year, Krakower created the new half-hour daily show “The Strategy Session,” co-hosted by CNBC’s David Faber and Gary Kaminsky, who used to manage $13 billion as a fund manager, giving viewers access to the type of discussions and analysis that until now have only occurred behind closed doors.

Krakower is also the creative force behind some of the network’s most prestigious specials including this year’s “Investing in America: A CNBC Town Hall Event with President Obama,” a live one-hour town hall with the President focused squarely on the economy, the number one issue facing voters in the November mid-term elections. The town hall hit home for many Americans from Wall Street to Main Street evident in a Washington Post headline entitled, “Was the CNBC town hall a wake-up call for the White House?”

In addition to her development duties, Krakower is responsible for the Branded Content department at CNBC, working closely with the network’s ad-sales team to generate new revenue streams for this ever-changing media company. Each year, CNBC brings in millions of dollars in ad revenue thanks to Krakower’s innovative approach to branded content including CNBC’s “Options Action,” the only program on cable television focusing on options, and multi-part specials including “Executive Vision” and the “Meeting of the Minds,” all original ideas that also generate provocative dialogue essential to CNBC’s investor-focused audience.

Krakower is also responsible for weekend programming at CNBC, including the network’s highest-rated show, “The Suze Orman Show.”

Prior to joining CNBC in 2002, Krakower was an Executive Vice President and Executive Producer at Source Entertainment Television, where she over saw a staff of 70 and two simultaneous weekly shows – one in Los Angeles and one in New York. She also managed business deals for both companies and directed development, production and business affairs.

Krakower also held senior positions at Universal Television where she was Senior Vice President, Programming and Development, and Vice President, Programming. In this role, she managed three shows, two in New York and one in Chicago: “Jerry Springer,” “Sally Jesse Raphael” and “Maury Povich,” overseeing the launch of the latter, as well.

During her career, Krakower has held senior-level production positions at Universal Studios Television, NBC News and ABC Daytime. She began her career at ABC News as a Production Assistant, Special Events.

Yet Krakower’s favorite project, closest to her heart was overseeing the TBS groundbreaking 6-part documentary “A Century of Women” from inception, finding the right voice to tell the history of women in a context that was true and authentic.

Krakower is the driving force behind CNBC’s strategic programming revolutionizing how business programs are thought of using her gut for emotionally charged television.  But her most important job is being mother to her 9-year-old son, Ross.

Krakower holds a bachelor’s degree in communication from Syracuse University.