David Kirkpatrick

Founder & Editor-in-Chief , Techonomy Media

About This Expert

He began his career with Time Inc. in 1978 as a copy clerk while working as a video artist. In 1983, he started at Fortune magazine as a reporter, becoming a writer in 1989, and then began writing exclusively about technology in January 1991. From 2002-2008, he wrote a weekly tech column called “Fast Forward.” Kirkpatrick also developed and hosted Fortune’s Brainstorm conference, an annual gathering in Aspen, Colorado, which began in August 2001. Brainstorm attendees during the conference’s 5 years included President Bill Clinton, Google founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin, Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy, Senator John McCain, FBI Director Robert Mueller, ecologists Paul Ehrlich and Amory Lovins, Under-Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, and venture capitalist John Doerr.

After meeting Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in September 2006, Kirkpatrick began writing frequently about Facebook in Fortune. In January 2008 Zuckerberg agreed to cooperate on a book about the company. The New York Times best-selling book is the only profile on which Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg have officially cooperated, and is a best-seller in countries including Taiwan, Japan, and China. It has been published in 32 languages, including Vietnamese, Croatian, and Catalan.

Since leaving Fortune, Kirkpatrick has continued to host and program conferences. He established Techonomy LLC in 2010, which segued into Techonomy Media in 2011. It focuses on the impact of technology on business, economics, and society. Forbes Media invested in Techonomy Media in July 2011. The company’s mission is “to illuminate the connections between technology, innovation, economic growth, and social equity,” and its annual Techonomy conference aims to provide a forum for leaders and innovators in tech and other industries to discuss the possibilities and implications of rapid technological acceleration. Participants at the conferences have included Bill Gates, Jack Dorsey, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Marissa Mayer, Sean Parker, Marc Benioff, and Dan Hesse.