Eric J. Gertler

Eric Gertler has held leadership roles in both the private and public sectors.

Gertler currently serves as Executive Chairman and CEO of U.S. News & World Report, the nation’s leading news authority on rankings and expert guidance on life decisions, where he has overall responsibility for both the editorial and business operations of this multifaceted digital media company. The company reaches almost 500 million people annually.

In August 2019, Gertler was nominated to serve as Acting Commissioner and President & CEO-designate of Empire State Development (ESD), New York State’s principal economic development agency, a position he held through July 2021. He had previously been confirmed in June 2018 by the New York Senate to serve on the ESD board. Gertler’s tenure was characterized by four main priorities: meeting the unprecedented economic needs of the state arising from the Covid-19 pandemic (providing operational guidance to New York businesses to assist them through the height of the Covid-19 crisis and the reopening; sourcing PPE equipment and developing testing initiatives; and developing financial incentives and miscellaneous recovery and loan programs that relaunched the state’s economy); completing critical infrastructure projects (including Moynihan Train Hall; the Javits Center expansion; announcement of National Urban League HQ; opening of Legoland; and redevelopment of the UBS Arena at Belmont); attracting companies to New York State and expanding job growth (including, among others, Cree Wolfspeed, Beam Suntory and Regeneron); and implementing economic initiatives with long term benefits (including the largest small business assistance program in the history of New York State; highest state minority and women business owned enterprise utilization rate in the country; various climate control actions, broadband programs, as well as life science, film production and marketing initiatives). A passionate New Yorker, he continues to be a member of the ESD board.

Gertler also served as the Executive Chairman of U.S. News & World Report from 2015 to 2019 and concurrently as Co-Chairman and Co-Publisher of the New York Daily News, New York’s hometown newspaper from 2015 to 2017. During this time, the paper expanded its digital capabilities and reach, and partnered with other organizations to market the newspaper as well as to bolster its news coverage in New York City. In 2017, under Gertler’s tenure, the New York Daily News and ProPublica were jointly honored with a Pulitzer Prize, in the category of public service journalism for an investigative series primarily by reporter Sarah Ryley. Gertler subsequently engineered the 2017 sale of The Daily News to the Tribune Company.

Gertler had an earlier stint in government from 2013 to 2015 as Executive Vice President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and as Managing Director of the Center for Economic Transformation under multiple mayoral administrations. He was responsible for spurring economic development by managing more than 100 initiatives and directing hundreds of millions of dollars of city investments into the local economy. Gertler spearheaded the City’s $150 million life science fund and associated programs to accelerate the life sciences industry in New York City, oversaw development of the City’s tech platform called digital.nyc and expanded the BigApps civic competition. The comprehensive suite of initiatives under his supervision included job growth programs, investment funds, incubators, training and mentorship programs, and public-private partnerships. These programs encompassed a broad range of industry sectors including life sciences, healthcare, finance, non-profit, international, media, technology, manufacturing and clean-tech.

He has held other leadership roles at the intersection of technology, data and media sectors. Gertler led a number of cutting-edge technology companies including serving as CEO of Altruik (product search optimization); PrimeAxis Media (content aggregation/consumer rankings); and Privista (identity theft protection), all of which were subsequently acquired by other companies. In media, Gertler served concurrently in the late 1990s as President of the three media properties U.S. News & World Report, Fast Company and The Atlantic, for which he managed day-to-day operations with a focus on expanding the titles into new online areas and conferences. He began his career as a corporate and communications attorney with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

Throughout his time in both the private and public sectors, Gertler has written and spoken extensively on key policy issues and economic development priorities including workforce and employment matters, infrastructure investment, urban development, entrepreneurship and innovation. He is the author of the critically acclaimed book Prying Eyes: Protect Your Privacy From People Who Sell To You, Snoop on You or Steal From You (Random House), which predicted the crisis of security around personal data.

He serves as a trustee and adviser to the Zuckerman Family Office, Zuckerman Institute and Zuckerman Family Foundation and is a board member of Columbia University’s Zuckerman Mind Brain and Behavior Institute. He is on the Board of Trustees of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and is a member of the Board of Governors for Technion-Israel Institute of Technology as well as Tel Aviv University and the Weizmann Institute of Science. He serve on the International Board of Governors of Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is the Chairman of the American-Israel Friendship League. He is a current member of Young Presidents’ Organization (“YPO”) and is a former Chair of the YPO Metro New York Chapter. Gertler is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Gertler is also a director of the Leadership Council for the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Most recently, Gertler was named to City & State’s 2021 “Albany Power List” and “Real Estate Power 100”. Previously, he has been recognized on City & State’s 2020 “Albany Power List”, Long Island Press’s 2019 “Power List”, and City & State’s 2016 “Responsible 100 List”. In 2017, Gertler was honored as a Great Immigrant by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which recognizes the extraordinary contributions of naturalized citizens through its annual Great Immigrants tribute.

A graduate of Brown University, Gertler holds degrees from the Sorbonne at the University of Paris, the Institut D’Etudes Politiques in Paris, with honors, and a law degree, with honors, from American University, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review and was inducted into the National Leadership Honor Society Omicron Delta Kappa.