Walter Isaacson is a professor of history at Tulane and an advisory partner at Perella Weinberg, a financial services firm based in New York City. He is the past CEO of the Aspen Institute, where he is now a distinguished fellow, and past chairman of CNN and editor of Time magazine.
Isaacson's most recent biography, "Leonardo da Vinci" (2017), offers new discoveries about Leonardo's life and work, weaving a narrative that connects his art to his science. He is also the author of "The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution" (2014), "Steve Jobs" (2011), "Einstein: His Life and Universe" (2007), "Benjamin Franklin: An American Life" (2003) and "Kissinger: A Biography" (1992).
He is also the co-author of "The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made" (1986) and host of the show "Amanpour and Company" on PBS and CNN, a contributor to CNBC and host of the podcast "Trailblazers, from Dell Technologies."
Isaacson is a graduate of Harvard College and of Pembroke College of Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. He began his career at The Sunday Times of London and then the New Orleans Times-Picayune. He joined Time in 1978 and served as a political correspondent, national editor and editor of digital media before becoming the magazine's 14th editor in 1996. He became chairman and CEO of CNN in 2001 and then president and CEO of the Aspen Institute in 2003.
He is chair emeritus of Teach for America. From 2005-2007, he was the vice chair of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, which oversaw the rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. He was appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate to serve as the chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which runs Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and other international broadcasts of the United States, a position he held from 2009-2012.
He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Society of the Arts and the American Philosophical Society. He serves on the board of United Airlines, the New Orleans City Planning Commission, the New Orleans Tricentennial Commission, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Society of American Historians, the U.S. Defense Department Innovation Board, the Carnegie Institution for Science and My Brother's Keeper Alliance.