Geoff Colvin

In four decades at Fortune, Geoff Colvin has established himself as one of business journalism’s most respected minds on trends driving business change. He reports on AI and the infotech revolution, leadership, business strategy, global business, government regulation, competition, the economy, worker/workforce issues, and related topics. With close ties to top business leaders, Geoff reveals what they’re thinking, seeing, and doing to transform their companies and win in spite of relentless change. “Winning companies and leaders confront reality faster than the competition,” he says. “They stop protecting the past and invest in inventing the future.” Geoff’s insights reveal a clearer path for an uncertain future. His columns and cover stories for Fortune have earned him millions of loyal fans. He’s also heard on the CBS Radio Network, where he reaches seven million listeners each week. Geoff’s bestselling books include The Upside of the Downturn, Talent is Overrated, and Humans are Underrated. A keynote speaker with compelling content, Geoff is also a brilliant panel moderator and interviewer. 

In addition to writing for Fortune and his regular CBS Radio Network segments (he’s done over 15,000 since 1995), Geoff has appeared on Today, Good Morning America, Squawk Box, CBS This Morning, ABC’s World News Tonight, CNN, PBS’s Nightly Business Report, and dozens of other programs. He also served as anchor of Wall $treet Week with Fortune on PBS. 

In addition to speaking, Geoff is also a brilliant panel moderator, emcee, and interviewer whose subjects have included Madeleine Albright, Ben Bernanke, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, Bill Gates, Timothy Geithner, Alan Greenspan, Henry Kissinger, Henry M. Paulson, Colin Powell, Robert Reich, Condoleezza Rice, Desmond Tutu, H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, Jack Welch, Janet Yellen and many others.  

Geoff is a respected author whose groundbreaking international bestseller, Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else, has been published in a dozen languages. The Upside of the Downturn: Management Strategies for Difficult Times was named “Best Management Book of the Year” by Strategy + Business magazine. Geoff’s latest book is Humans are Underrated: What High Achievers Know That Brilliant Machines Never Will.  It’s based on the idea in his wildly popular Fortune article “In the Future Will There Be Any Work Left for People to Do?”  It looks at the trend of advancing technology performing ever more tasks better than people perform them, and the ways humans will create value for their organizations and their careers in the changing economy. The ideas he shares have profound implications for every business and industry.

A native of Vermillion, South Dakota, Geoff Colvin is an honors graduate of Harvard with a degree in economics and has an M.B.A. from New York University’s Stern School of Business.