Randall Lane, the Editor of Forbes Magazine, will be giving the keynote speech at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies Graduation Ceremony on Monday, May 15th, 2017.
For two decades, Lane has led, launched, and innovated magazines and media companies, and he has reached great heights as a business journalist, profiling the leaders of today and tomorrow.
His speech will be focused on how to put your talents and successes to use tackling issues that are emerging now, and will play out over the next century. As we get closer to graduation day, here are five interesting facts about our esteemed guest and keynote speaker.
1. He’s an entrepreneur. After an initial stint at Forbes Magazine in the early nineties, Lane spent the next decade taking on roles including co-founder, editor-in-chief, and the CEO of two media start-ups which led to almost a dozen magazines and related websites (including the men’s magazine P.O.V. and Wall Street magazine Trader Monthly).
2. He’s turned challenge into success. His company, Doubledown Media, filed for bankruptcy in the wake of the 2008 economic crash. However, his time running Trader Monthly served as the inspiration for his first book, a memoir/report of Wall Street excess: The Zeroes: My Misadventures in the Decade Wall Street Went Insane.
3. He’s always been a savvy observer of business. Perhaps he was fated to report on the rich and daring, as his childhood home was next door to the Rockefeller estate. In his second book, 2016’s You Only Have to Be Right Once: The Rise of the Instant Billionaires Behind Spotify, Airbnb, WhatsApp, and 13 Other Amazing Startups, he profiled the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs driving today’s economy.
4. He’s creating solutions with new Forbes initiatives. He has expanded the company's reach with impactful events: The Forbes 400 Summit on Philanthropy, where the world’s leading philanthropists, social entrepreneurs, and business leaders gather to take on global problems; and the Under 30 Summit, where over 5,000 millennial entrepreneurs featured in Lane’s successful franchise, the annual Forbes 30 Under 30 list, plan a course for business over the next 50 years.
5. He’s proof that print is not dead. Forbes celebrates its centennial anniversary this year with strong numbers. It hit a new high for U.S. readership, 6.8 million. It also has had a 50% increase with the millennial market, readers aged 18 – 34. The Forbes website reaches an audience of 56 million readers monthly, with 30 million followers on social media.
