Tom Werner

Werner was born in Los Angeles, California, U.S., to a Jewish family who originally hail from Germany, but emigrated to New York City years later. He is the one out of three children who birthed to Elizabeth (née Grumbach) and Henry Werner. He has two siblings Patsy Werner Hanson and Peter Werner. He attended the St. Bernard's School in Manhattan, The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut. Werner later graduated from Harvard University in 1971.

In 1973, Werner entered television by working for ABC-TV. In 1975, he became the Director of East Coast Prime Time Development. Werner was promoted to senior vice president of the prime-time development department in 1979. While at ABC, Werner was involved in the development of Mork & Mindy, Bosom Buddies, Soap and Taxi.

Werner left the network in 1980 and co-founded The Carsey-Werner Company with Marcy Carsey the same year. In this capacity he served as executive producer of such television programs as The Cosby Show (targeted at African-American/Black viewing) and its spin-off A Different World, along Roseanne, Grace Under Fire, 3rd Rock from the Sun, That '70s Show and Grounded for Life. In 1996, Werner was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.

In 2000, Werner, Carsey and longtime partner Caryn Mandabach joined Oprah Winfrey to plan and launch Oxygen, a 24-hour cable TV channel which catered to the lifestyle and entertainment interests of the "millennial woman". In 2007, NBC Universal purchased the network for $925 million, and in 2017, it was rebranded as a multi-platform site with a focus on true-crime programming for women.

In 2018, Werner served as executive producer for the revival of Roseanne and was the executive producer for the spin-off continuation of The Conners after Roseanne was cancelled by ABC in May 2018 amid Roseanne Barr's controversial tweet about Valerie Jarrett, a former advisor to ex-President Barack Obama. In 2019, Werner, along with Sara Gilbert launched Sara+Tom, by combining two companies, his Werner Entertainment, and Gilbert's TV branch, both of which worked after the success of The Conners.

Currently, Werner lives in Los Angeles. He is divorced from his first wife Jill Troy Werner; they have three children: a son and two daughters. In January 2022, he became engaged to ABC News correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton. They were married on November 5, 2022, at the Harmonie Club in New York City. Dr. Ashton has two children.

Werner is the founding Chairman of the Red Sox Foundation, the charitable arm of the Boston Red Sox. Since its creation in 2002, the Red Sox Foundation has donated to more than 1,780 organizations, helped 288 Boston public school students with college scholarships through the Red Sox Scholars program, and supported hundreds of youth baseball programs in New England.

In 2008, Werner was involved in the creation of the Home Base Program, a partnership between the Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital to help veterans and their families cope with PTSD and traumatic brain injuries.

In November 2011, the Red Sox Foundation received Major League Baseball's first-ever "Commissioner's Award for Philanthropic Excellence" for the foundation's "Red Sox Scholars" program.

In January 2013, Werner received the Dave Winfield Humanitarian Award from the Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation at the organization's annual "In the Spirit of the Game" Sports and Entertainment Spectacular.

On October 30, 2014, Werner received the "Outstanding Civilian Service Award" from the United States Army for his creation of the Home Base Program.

From 2016 to 2020, Werner donated $113,250 to Democratic candidates and causes.