My specialties: Deep reporting. Making complicated subjects comprehensible. Providing crucial information, insight and analysis that other reporters might overlook or miss. Clear writing. Editing that emphasizes structure, rhythm, accuracy, lucidity. A management style dedicated to bringing out the best in individuals and teams.
Successfully managed staffs as large as 45 reporters and editors; also adept at working solo from remote locations.
2014 -present – Reporter and writer, Los Angeles Times.
2008-2013 – Kaiser Health News; wrote stories for publications such as Fast Company, The Washington Post, The Atlantic online and USA Today. Editorial development work for business executives, Editorial consulting for the California Health Care Foundation. Communications for Encore.org.
2006-2007 – Senior staff writer, Conde Nast Portfolio.
2001-2006 – Column for Smart Money online. Stories for Wired, Fortune, Chief Executive and others. Company research for Kingsford Capital. Analytical papers for Booz & Co.
2000-2001 – Business 2.0. Started as executive editor, promoted to editor in chief. Magazine sold to AOL Time Warner in 2001. Managed editorial staff of 45.
1999-2000 – Red Hat Software. Editor in chief for the Linux startup. Oversaw website creation, advised top management on media and public relations issues.
1997-1999 – U.S. News & World Report. Senior technology writer in the James Fallows era. Focused on Microsoft antitrust case and Internet mania. Wrote several cover stories.
1995-1997 – Wired. Managing Editor. Wired won the 1996 National Magazine Award for General Excellence based on three monthly issues, which I supervised while Wired’s editor in chief was focused on company’s IPO attempt. Also coordinated coverage with managers of Hotwired, one of the Web’s first “content” sites. Managed an editorial staff of 30.
1985-1995 – Business Week. San Francisco bureau chief 1991-1995; managed 5 reporters and support staff. Earlier served as manager for Connecticut and Minneapolis bureaus, correspondent in Detroit, and Pentagon correspondent in Washington, D.C. Wrote several cover stories. Interviewed personalities ranging from Jack Welch to Bill Gates to Al Gore to Norman Schwarzkopf. Pentagon coverage included six weeks in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait during first Gulf war.
1983-1984 – Vannevar Bush Fellow in science and technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Focused on how corporations manage research and development.
1978-1985 – Worked at several newspapers, including the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel and the Corvallis Gazette Times. In Corvallis, launched paper’s coverage of molecular biology and semiconductor research at Oregon State University, which led to a fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Joined the Austin American-Statesman in 1984 as the paper’s first technology columnist, and traveled to Japan for a series of stories on the national Fifth Generation artificial intelligence project.
1977-1978 — Newspaper editor aboard cruise ship Royal Viking Sky. Traveled to ports in more than 35 countries on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the North, Mediterranean, Adriatic and Black seas.
1977 – Graduated from University of Illinois with degree in communications. City editor of college paper Daily Illini, which won 1976-77 Sigma Delta Chi award for nation’s best college newspaper.