Erin Burnett

Early life and education

Burnett was born and raised in Mardela Springs, Maryland. She is the youngest daughter of Esther Margaret (née Stewart) and Kenneth King Burnett, a corporate attorney. She is of part Irish and Scottish ancestry. Burnett attended St. Andrew's School, a private co-educational college preparatory boarding school in Middletown, Delaware, graduating in 1994. She returned to the school in 2009 to deliver the commencement speech. She then attended Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where she studied political science and economics, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political economy. As an undergraduate, she played lacrosse and field hockey.

Career

Burnett began her career as a financial analyst for Goldman Sachs in their investment banking division, where she worked on mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance. While working as an investment-banking analyst, Burnett was offered a position at CNN as a writer and booker for CNN's Moneyline with Stuart Varney, Willow Bay, and Lou Dobbs. She left the position to serve as vice president of Citigroup's digital media group, CitiMedia.

Following Citigroup, Burnett joined Bloomberg Television as Stocks Editor and anchor. From 2005 to 2011 Burnett was the host of CNBC's Street Signs and co-anchor of Squawk on the Street with Mark Haines.

On December 7, 2010, Burnett presented an investigative report on chemical giant Transammonia doing business in Iran. She reported that a wholly owned subsidiary of Transammonia in the United States purchased ammonia from Iran. On December 13, 2010, as a result of the CNBC report, Transammonia sent a press release to congressional leaders stating that Transammonia's Swiss subsidiary would not enter into new contracts with Iranian companies and would wind down its business with Iran "as soon as possible." The following year, the investigative report was nominated for an Emmy.

Following more than five years with CNBC, Burnett left the network on May 6, 2011, to then join rival news outlet CNN on October 3, 2011. There, she began headlining her own prime-time news program called Erin Burnett OutFront, which films at CNN's New York City studios.

Hosted programs

Documentaries

Film

Controversy

On August 5, 2009, Burnett used the term "serial killer" in a discussion with her host Jim Cramer regarding a report about the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's plans to spend millions of dollars on aerial shooting to cull Australian feral camels in the outback. Cramer referred to the reported plan as "camelcide." The next day on the show, Burnett said her comment was meant as a joke.

Shortly after joining CNN, Burnett aired an October 4, 2011 segment on the Occupy Wall Street protests titled "Seriously?" in which she mocked the protesters. Journalist Glenn Greenwald reacted in a Salon article detailing bias in Burnett's reporting, which he attributed to her previous work experience on Wall Street as well as her partner's employment with Citigroup. In response to the criticism, CNN issued a statement saying, "We support Erin and the OutFront team and we respect that there will be a range of opinions on any given story."

Personal life

Burnett met finance executive David Rubulotta on a blind date in 2003. Rubulotta was previously a trader for Lehman Brothers and is currently a managing director for Citigroup. They became engaged in September 2011. Burnett and Rubulotta were married on December 21, 2012. On November 29, 2013, Burnett gave birth to a son, Nyle Thomas Burnett Rubulotta and on July 18, 2015, she gave birth to a daughter, Colby Isabelle. Burnett is Catholic.