What I’ve done

Writer, Editor and Media Consultant with extensive editorial and publishing experience in print and online products.

• Executive Managing Editor, Investment Advisor Magazine, Current
• Financial Writer/Free-lancer
• Writer, Editor and Publisher of Futures Magazine Group for 30 years
• Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of Futures Magazine (print and online) for 17 years
• Group Editorial Director for Credit Union Times, Inside Counsel and Treasury & Risk magazines and web sites.

• Developed launch strategies for web sites, magazines, newsletters and social media.
• Developed and produced new media products in conjunction with internet vendors, printers, circulation and fulfillment houses, marketing specialists and editorial, art and sales teams.
• Covered derivatives industry as a reporter and editor since 1983, with special focus on managed funds and international business.
• Directed editorial teams since 1996, managed sales teams since 1999.
• Set up licensed  content internationally.
• P&L responsibility for Futures Magazine Group and Summit Business Media’s Professional Services Group.
• Resigned from Futures Magazine after 30 years to pursue new opportunities in media consulting and multifaceted freelance writing

Getting up and personal with cheetahs during a trip to South Africa

The Journey

After graduating from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism with a masters degree, I did a short stint as a free-lancer working for Newsweek, Business Week, Crain’s Chicago Business, The Chicago Tribune and even the Christian Science Monitor. That ended when I was hired by Futures Magazine as an assistant editor. My beats: managed futures and International business. Now back in 1983 when I was hired, managed futures was 50 guys in a room and the international business included the small London International Financial Futures Exchange and some commodity exchanges in Europe and Asia. But luckily it was the front end of a dramatic growth trajectory and I was lucky enough to interview some of today’s best hedge fund managers such as Paul Tudor Jones and Louis Bacon, as well as I traveled internationally for the magazine covering the global growth of the futures and options business. In addition to this growth was the changing U.S. industry landscape, which had multiple exchanges that were aggressive competitors.

In the 1990s I was named editor-in-chief of the publication and website and in 1999 named publisher as well. During this time the magazine was sold to various publishing concerns (Adams Business Media in 1999 and Summit Business Media in 2005). My duties changed slightly in 2009 when I was named Group Editorial Director of Summit’s Professional Services Group, that included Futures, Credit Union Times, InsideCounsel and Treasury&Risk products. As I had able editors over those products, I still managed Futures on an editor-in-chief basis as well as ran the division with a colleague who oversaw the sales and marketing of the group.

In 2012, Summit determined it wanted to focus on its two core areas: insurance and financial advisory, and sold Futures in early 2013 to a small entrepreneurial group. In December 2013, with 30 years of editing and publishing under my belt, I resigned to strike out on my own to pursue other writing avenues and use my publishing knowledge to be a media consultant.

Four years later I was asked to come on board full-time by one of my largest clients, Investment Advisor Magazine/ThinkAdvisor.com, as executive managing editor. Today I cover a myriad of topics that touch the investment advisory community, everything from retirement to ESG to ETFs to wealth management.

Education

• University of Wisconsin – Madison: BA in Communication Arts
• Northwestern University: Masters in Journalism
• University of Chicago:  graduate of 4-year Basic (Great Books) program (certificate)