Maria De Varenne

Maria De Varenne is a senior partner at Finn Partners. The nationally respected news executive joined Finn’s Nashville office in May 2022. A journalist and editor for more than 30 years, she led newsrooms in Tennessee and Southern California. Her extensive professional and managerial experience with Gannett and Belo included strategic multi-media product start-ups, market and audience expansions and innovative staff development. She managed day-to-day newsroom operations in competitive markets, most recently as the executive editor of The Tennessean from 2011 to 2022. Before moving to Nashville, she was editor and vice president of news of The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California, from 1999 to 2011. De Varenne has been lauded for her leadership including being named Gannett Newsroom Manager of the Year. She is a graduate of the University of New Mexico and a Knight Digital Media Center Fellow at the University of Southern California. She was an adjunct faculty member at Middle Tennessee State University in the Communications Department, and she serves on several boards and foundations.