People

David Kirkpatrick

David Kirkpatrick

Formal First Name
David
Dates
1953 - present
Location

David Kirkpatrick is one of the world’s top technology journalists and the Founder of Techonomy, a conference and media company that broadly focuses on technology, business and society. He hosts the Techonomy annual conference that tackles the centrality of technology to business and social progress and the urgency of embracing the rapid pace of change brought by technology. Previously, he spent 25 years at Fortune, and founded and hosted its Brainstorm and Brainstorm Tech conferences. During his time at Fortune, he covered the computer and technology industry as well as the impact of the Internet on business and society. David is the author of the definitive New York Times bestselling bookThe Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company that is Connecting the World,” published in 32 countries. Today, he focuses on climate tech, climate action, and the crisis of global heating.

Professional Experience


Academic History

FORTUNE

  • He was Senior Editor for Internet and Technology at Fortune, where he covered stories about Apple, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Sun, and numerous other tech subjects.

  • Beginning in 2001, he created Fortune’s Brainstorm conference series (Fortune’s Brainstorm conference series from 2001 through 2006 and the Brainstorm Tech conferences from 2007- 2009).

  • Attendees included President Bill Clinton, Larry Page, Meg Whitman, Scott Cook, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Paul Wolfowitz, John McCain, the foreign minister of Poland, and numerous other luminaries from business, tech, government, the sciences, and academia.


THE FACEBOOK EFFECT

  • 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.

  • The book has been published in 32 languages, including Vietnamese, Croatian, and Catalan.

  • The book is also available in the UK, British Commonwealth, Russia, China, Spain, Latin America and elsewhere. 


MEDIA, APPEARANCES & PUBLICATIONS

  • David appears frequently as a technology industry expert on TV, radio, and Net video.

  • In addition to writing for Techonomy, he contributes to Forbes, Daily Beast, and Vanity Fair.

  • He has written about Sean Parker and Jack Dorsey, and publishes regularly on LinkedIn.

  • He also speaks and moderates, focused on technology's intersection with the economy, the Internet, the climate crisis, Facebook, social media, and how all those things connect.