Elisabeth DeMarse

Elisabeth DeMarse is a businesswoman. She is a former Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of TheStreet, Inc, aka TheStreet.com.

DeMarse grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, graduated from Charlotte Country Day School, received her A.B. from Wellesley College and her MBA from Harvard Business School. Her father, Samuel Cummings Hair, ran Interstate Advertising, the largest outdoor and airport display company in North Carolina. Her mother, Liz Hair, was Chairman of the Board of Commissioners for Mecklenberg County. At age 15, she founded an alternative newspaper, The Naked Truth, and was editor of The Country Day Monitor. At Wellesley, she was a Wellesley Scholar, a Wellesley Washington Intern, Chief Justice, and a columnist for the Wellesley News.

DeMarse began her career in politics, serving on the Senate Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities (aka The Watergate Committee) and then as an aide to Congressman Edward I. Koch, following him to New York’s City Hall when Koch became Mayor. Koch named DeMarse to a four-year term on the New York Commission on the Status of Women in 1985.

After graduating from Harvard Business School, DeMarse became assistant to Robert Flanagan, CEO of Western Union. In 1988, she joined Michael Bloomberg's new company as head of marketing. While at Bloomberg, DeMarse launched 8 businesses, including Bloomberg.com. She launched the Bloomberg series of cartoon books with The New Yorker magazine.

While at Bloomberg, DeMarse created and ran Bloomberg Personal Finance, then termed “Personal Wealth.” In 2000, she was recruited by former Forbes publisher Jeff Cunningham to run iLife. At that time, iLife was in financial trouble and ranked #7 on the March 2000 Barron’s “Burn Rate” list. Two quarters later, ad revenues had increased and the company's cashflow returned to break-even levels. The stock price rose from $0.18 to $26 per share. She re-branded the company as Bankrate.com. In 2000 Bankrate's unique visitors grew from 700,000 to 5 million. In 2004, four years after becoming CEO of the near bankrupt company, Bankrate reported $14 million in net income.[17] November 1, 2001 DeMarse testified before Congress on the impact of 9/11 on credit card billing of the consumer. 9/11 disrupted mail flow across the eastern United States, and millions of consumers were affected by unfair late fees. DeMarse testified regarding the unfairness of consumer late fees brought about by the events of 9/11 before the SubCommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit. Subsequently, some issuers, notably Capital One, cancelled their late fees.

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