Sarah Lubman ’85

Sarah Lubman is a veteran strategic communications executive and journalist. She led global communications for SoftBank Group until June 2021. From 2005-2018, she advised corporate clients as a Partner at Brunswick Group, a global communications consultancy. Sarah led Brunswick’s Japan practice from 2006-2011, counseling Japanese companies on corporate reputation, crisis management, transactions and activist shareholder defense. Sarah was on Brunswick’s US Operating Committee, running the firm’s compensation and promotion process and overseeing US recruitment for 3 years. Before Brunswick and SoftBank, Sarah was a journalist for 17 years, including 6 years in Tokyo and Beijing. She worked for ABC News in Tokyo and for UPI and NPR in Beijing, where she covered the 1989 student democracy movement and crackdown. Sarah was subsequently a reporter at the Wall Street Journal in Los Angeles, a reporter and editor at the San Jose Mercury News, and Asia editor of Newsweek International before joining the corporate sector. In 2022, Sarah wrote a National Geographic feature about how Japan leads the world in coping with the challenges of a depopulating, aging society. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Sarah has an M.A. in Japanese Literature from UCLA and a BA in Japanese and Religious Studies from UC Berkeley. She speaks Japanese and rusty Chinese.