Steve Forbes

Steve Forbes is President and Chief Executive Officer of Forbes Inc. and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes magazine. Mr. Forbes assumed his position in February of 1990.

In 1995, for the fourth consecutive year, Forbes magazine carried more advertising pages than any other business magazine in America. With a circulation of more than 765,000, it is the oldest of the top three business magazines.

Mr. Forbes writes editorials for each issue of Forbes under the heading of “Fact and Comment.” A widely respected economic prognosticator, he has appeared on many national news programs including “The MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour,” “The Nightly Business Report” and “Wall Street Week.” He is the only writer to have won the highly prestigious Crystal Owl Award four times. The prize was formerly given by USX Corporation to the financial journalist whose economic forecasts for the coming year proved most accurate.

In 1985, President Reagan names Mr. Forbes Chairman of the bi-partisan Board for International Broadcasting (BIB). In this position, he oversaw the operation of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. Broadcasting from behind the Iron Curtain, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty were praised by Poland’s Lech Walesa as being critical to the struggle against communism. Mr. Forbes was reappointed to his post by President Bush and served until April of 1993.

From December of 1993 until June 1996, Mr. Forbes served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Empower America, a grassroots, political reform organization founded by Jack Kemp, Bill Bennett and Jeane Kirkpatrick.

On September 22, 1995, Mr. Forbes took a leave of absence from Forbes Inc. to campaign for the Republican nomination for President. He vigorously competed in all the early primary contests and was victorious in Arizona and Delaware. Mr. Forbes advocated a platform of hope, growth and opportunity. Key to his program was his flat tax proposal, medical savings accounts, a new Social Security system for younger people, parental control of schools and term limits. Mr. Forbes continues to energetically promote his pro-growth agenda.

Steve Forbes was born on July 18, 1947, in Morristown, New Jersey. He graduated cum laude in 1966 from Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts. He received a B.A. in History from Princeton in 1970. At Princeton, he was the founding editor of Business Today, which became the country’s largest magazine published by students for students, with a circulation of 200,000. The magazine continues to be published today by Princeton undergraduates.

Mr. Forbes now serves as President of the Board of Trustees of Brooks School. He is also on the Board of Trustees of Princeton University, as well as on the boards of the Foundation for Student Communication, The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and The American Enterprise Institute. He is on the Board of Overseers of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and holds honorary degrees from eleven colleges and universities.