About

Liz Manne is a strategist. She helps media companies and nonprofits develop aspirational missions and deliver on them.

Liz Manne is a creative producer. She’s made movies, trailers, posters, political ads, and some unusually groovy annual reports and research studies.

Liz believes culture is the object of change and the agent of change. Among her foundational contributions to the burgeoning field of narrative and cultural strategy are Making Waves: A Guide to Cultural Strategy, the seminal handbook from The Culture Group, a pop-up think tank of artists and activists; #PopJustice: Social Justice and the Promise of Pop Culture Strategies, a comprehensive study to introduce social justice philanthropy to the power of pop culture; Story at Scale, a narrative research project to advance gender justice; and Narrative Strategy: The Basics, a primer for philanthropy and practitioners. (View all publications here.)

Liz is indebted to young colleagues for introducing her to the validating concept of the “portfolio” career. Liz’s consulting work has included an eclectic mix of strategic planning, brand strategy, CEO coaching, and philanthropic advisory services. On the media side, clients have included SFFILM, San Francisco’s preeminent film culture institute; Cinetic Marketing, the powerhouse prestige film PR firm; Cinereach, an award-winning media incubator; HBO Films, back when that really, truly meant something; and the one and only TIFF. In the nonprofit sector, she has worked with the Gates Foundation in support of its U.S. program for economic mobility and opportunity; the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on advancing health equity; ReFrame, a leading social justice narrative power-builder; and Perception Institute, who use mind science research to reduce bias and discrimination.

Liz helped shepherd more than 100 critically acclaimed and award-winning independent films to market. Of course she loves them all, but she loved Hoop Dreams best. As executive vice president and co-founder of Fine Line Features and senior advisor to HBO Films, she was also lucky enough to work on My Own Private Idaho, Maria Full of Grace, Elephant, Shine, Short Cuts and The Player. (See complete filmography here.) And at SundanceTV, long before streaming, she helped pioneer the programming of queer, Latinx, Black, and women filmmakers for television audiences. 

Liz’s last job-job was executive director of the humanitarian NGO FilmAid International, where she launched a rapid response communications operation in the world’s largest refugee camp during the 2011 Somalia famine crisis, and brought public information programming via inflatable screens to internally displaced persons in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. She learned some things.

Liz thinks name dropping is tacky, but sometimes does it anyway. She began her entertainment career as a stagehand with the legendary San Francisco rock and roll concert promoter Bill Graham, who taught her an enduring respect for the audience. From Robert Redford, who she worked with in the early days of SundanceTV, she learned that politics and entertainment are not only compatible, they’re basically the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup of endeavors. From Barack Obama, she learned the same thing everyone else did: hope springs eternal.

Liz has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1997 and serves on the advisory boards of Harmony Labs and the Upper West Side Film Center. 

Liz, unironically, considers herself a patriot. She was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. She swore an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. She tendered her resignation January 20, 2017. 

Liz got an MBA so people would stop asking her how fast she typed during job interviews in the 1980s (which was essentially the 1950s for all the professional opportunities afforded to women). She received that MBA from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business. She also holds a BA in Dramatic Art from University of California, Berkeley (Go Bears). Liz lives in New York City. The Clash remains her favorite band, the 49ers her football team, and Dorothy Parker her role model.